By Ellie-Rose Davies, Content Executive at IMRG Throughout 2024, Beauty emerged as a top-performing subcategory tracked by IMRG, while Clothing struggled to gain momentum. These trends have persisted into early 2025. In this blog, we'll explore the latest trends in these two sectors and share practical growth strategies. Read on to discover what fashion and beauty retailers can learn from each other, and how those managing both categories can do so effectively.

IMRG index data: Fashion and beauty commerce

Fashion trends

The Clothing sector continues to struggle to gain momentum, with all relevant subcategories experiencing declines in Year-on-Year revenue growth, according to IMRGs Online Retail Index. Footwear stands as the exception, showing growth in a few months of 2024 and maintaining six consecutive months of growth since August 2024. The category saw a particularly strong peak in September 2024. Overall, the Clothing sector consistently underperforms compared to the total online market.

Beauty trends

In stark contrast to Clothing, the Beauty sector is performing exceptionally well according to IMRGs Online Retail Index. Particularly since 2023, Beauty has ridden above the wave of total online market performance. In 2025 thus far, Fragrance and Haircare have been the top performing subcategories of Health & Beauty, but Beauty has also seen substantial growth.

Beauty sector insights

Beautys success owes to a variety of factors, from clever approaches to market, to increased customer propensity to purchase such items. Industry experts have revealed below some of the reasons Beauty continues to outperform other sectors. Social-first and heightened product experiences Justin Thomas, VP Sales EMEA North at Akeneo, comments that The beauty industry is renowned for being a pioneering early adopter of social commerce, with TikTok Shop reported to be the second largest beauty and wellness eCommerce retailer in the UK. Regardless of how brands are creating shoppable content “ product information still underpins all these interactions. Take for example influencers or brand collabs “ these will require a product brief to allow these 3rd party endorsers to be able to create the product-centric, authentic content designed to promote and sell while communicating accurate key product messaging. Justin recommends Syncing product information across social commerce channels in real-time, which becomes even more powerful when integrated with pricing and availability data. Reinforcing the value of social commerce and ensuring accurate and informative product information is Scott Tehrani, Media Strategy Director at 26PMX. Scott says, Beauty demand is less elastic than clothing. When purses tighten, your skincare routine is the last thing to go, especially in the social age with Vinted bargains. One macro trend I think beauty has adopted more so than fashion is authenticity and transparency. Scott notes how Beauty is social first. From make-up tutorials to product comparisons, UGC and influencers dominate social media, and some brands and retailers have carried that over to on-site as well. In comparison, You sometimes still dont understand how clothing will look in real life. Richer product descriptions incorporating micro UX features like model size, UGC reviews, fit runs and video can all remove buyer hesitation. Plus, Accessible ABV builds like style with and customer also bought, as well as links to style guides and relevant editorial, are can be key. A big tip is to Think of a PDP as your new homepage and make the experience enjoyable, says Scott.