Textile, Clothing, and Footwear: Digital Fails to Keep the Category Afloat. Last year was probably the hardest on record for the textile, clothing, and footwear industry. With UK consumers locked down for long periods of time, there was little need to shop for apparel. Again, digital channels had an effect but not one as dramatic as in some other categories.

While apparel, footwear, and accessories offer the most obvious use cases, others are exploring new ways of connecting with consumers online, even though the direct revenue opportunities are less evident. Read the full report on the metaverse.

Further, about one-third of respondents who had not yet purchased private label accessories, electronics, and footwear were open to doing so; for home furnishings, the figure was almost 46%. This signals consumers’ willingness to discover store-owned brands in a broader range of categories.

The D2C casual footwear and apparel brand, known for its trendy wool sneakers, debuted on the public markets in November 2021, touting category and physical store expansion as key avenues for growth. Investors have already grown weary, however, with the stock trading at less than half its IPO price.

Footwear retailer Allbirds revealed its costs rose in Q4, which is weighing on its profitability. More on this: Soaring digital ad costs, rising shipping costs, Apple’s iOS privacy changes, and smaller-than-anticipated customer bases (helped in part by a pandemic-related shift in consumer purchase behaviors) are converging to create a challenging environment for many D2C brands.

Footwear retailer Allbirds, pet supplies seller Bark, and streetwear brand Planet Brooklyn Academy are turning to wholesale to build brand awareness and expand their reach to counteract slowing growth. We estimate digitally native brands’ D2C ecommerce US sales growth to slow to 18.2% this year, a marked decline from 40.0% just two years ago.

Footwear retailer Payless, which filed for bankruptcy last year, is relaunching its brand with a new ecommerce site and brick-and-mortar ambitions.

Further, about one-third of respondents who had not yet purchased private label accessories, electronics, and footwear were open to doing so; for home furnishings, the figure was almost 46%. This signals consumers’ willingness to discover store-owned brands in a broader range of categories.