The sale of apparel and footwear in the US through online portals has showcased a steady growth over the years from 2009 to 2014. The US online market (both B2B and B2C) is one of the largest and most sophisticated in the world and has matured rapidly over the past five years. Internet penetration in the country has increased from 71.0 per cent in 2009 to 87.0 per cent in 2014. The rapid increase in number of internet users has also been supported by growth in Smartphone usage. The number of smartphone users has witnessed a CAGR of 32.3 per cent during the years 2009-2014. The online sales of apparel and footwear have driven away the large proportion of revenue from the brick and mortar retail outlets. Such a trend has arisen majorly on account of greater convenience, affordable prices and variety of products offered by online portals.

Apparel products have registered a higher amount of sales than footwear in comparison. The online market for footwear in the US has performed sluggish in comparison to apparel segment. The online footwear revenues have showcased a consistent trajectory of growth from 2009 to 2014 at a CAGR of 15.3 per cent. Over the years, the market has reflected tremendous increase due to the rising of disposable income of the masses and an increase in affinity to shop footwear online.