The benchmarks: 1.69% median conversion rate, $418 median AOV. The 25th-75th percentile range is $235–$765. Bounce rate and conversion rate are both down, but AOV is up.
H1 2026 was a more challenging half for Apparel & Fashion than the same period in 2025 — but the story splits depending on which metric you’re looking at.
On conversion: every single month of H1 2026 came in below the weakest month of H1 2025. The median CVR for the period was 1.69%, down from a range of 1.83%–2.52% across all of 2025.
Bounce rates have been climbing in parallel, rising from 35–37% in early 2025 to 42–43% by June 2026. More visitors are arriving and leaving quickly — in contrast with the same period in 2025.
On order value: the opposite. Median AOV for H1 2026 was $418, up 4.0% from H1 2025. The monthly trend shows steady recovery after a December dip, reaching $403 by June 2026 — 8.9% higher than June 2025 for the same store cohort.
CVR and AOV are moving in opposite directions. Fewer sessions are converting — but the sessions that do convert are producing larger baskets. The benchmark to watch alongside CVR is revenue per session, not conversion rate in isolation.
For context: Apparel’s 1.69% CVR places it in the middle of the 10-industry benchmark, above Home & Garden and Consumer Electronics but below the repeat-purchase categories (Health & Wellness, Beauty, Food & Beverage) that convert at roughly double the rate. Apparel’s $418 median AOV, however, ranks near the top — the category earns more per transaction than most.
The median Apparel & Fashion conversion rate in H1 2026 was 1.69%, placing Apparel in the middle tier of the 10 published industries.
Apparel’s mid-table CVR paired with a near-top AOV of $418 is unusual in the dataset. Repeat-purchase categories convert more readily at lower price points. Considered-purchase categories carry higher AOVs but lower CVR. Apparel doesn’t fit cleanly into either group — shoppers arrive engaged and browse extensively before committing.
Apparel’s bounce rate of 42.2% is the second lowest of any category in the dataset — confirming that low CVR here isn’t a traffic quality issue. The category simply requires more consideration before purchase.
The graph below shows monthly median CVR and bounce rate for active Apparel stores in Shogun’s conversion tracking network. Eighteen months of data makes the 2026 shift visible against a full year of 2025 baseline.
CVR ran in the 1.99%–2.52% range across every month of 2025, with the year’s peak in November.
Every month of H1 2026 came in below that 2025 floor.
Bounce rate has been climbing steadily — from 35–36% in spring 2025 to 42–43% by June 2026. The two trends are moving in lockstep: as fewer sessions end in conversion, more of them end at the first page.
The H1 2026 median AOV for Apparel & Fashion was $418, based on period order totals across 694 qualifying stores. This data set is separate from the CVR cohort above — it covers full-store Shopify order data rather than Shogun-instrumented page sessions, and uses different qualifying criteria.
The graph below tracks monthly median AOV for the 694 stores that qualify for the H1 2026 benchmark. AOV trend data is available from June 2025 — not January — because the qualifying cohort is defined by H1 2026 order volume, and earlier months reflect a different subset of those stores.
AOV climbed steadily through 2025, peaking at $414 in November before a sharp December dip to $357 — likely reflecting promotional pricing and clearance. It recovered steadily through H1 2026, reaching $403 by June. June 2026 vs. June 2025: +8.9% for the same store cohort.
AOV is up while CVR is down. The buyer pool seems to be narrowing toward higher intent shoppers, while fringe buyers fall off.
Look at both trends side by side and a clear pattern emerges: conversion is getting harder to earn in Apparel, but the transactions that do happen are worth more.
Every month of H1 2026 came in below the weakest conversion month of 2025. At the same time, AOV rose 4.0% year-over-year — and June 2026 AOV was 8.9% higher than June 2025 for the same store cohort.
One interpretation: the pool of buyers is narrowing toward more deliberate, higher-intent shoppers. Casual browsers are bouncing faster (bounce rate up 6+ points year-over-year). The visitors who stay and convert are spending more when they do.
The $418 median is a useful reference point — but the P25-to-P75 range tells an equally important story. The middle 50% of Apparel stores in this dataset have an AOV somewhere between $235 and $765. That’s a $530 spread within a single category benchmark.
That range reflects how structurally different the sub-markets within Apparel actually are. A fast-fashion retailer moving high volumes at $40 average order values and a premium outerwear brand closing $600+ transactions are both counted as “Apparel” in this data. The same is true for CVR — a category with this much price-point diversity will naturally produce a wide distribution of conversion rates, because the purchase decision for a $35 t-shirt and a $450 coat are fundamentally different.
The $418 median is a benchmark for Apparel as a category. Your relevant benchmark is the sub-market you actually compete in — which may sit meaningfully above or below the median.
If your AOV is well below $235 or above $765, you’re operating outside the middle distribution of the category entirely — which doesn’t mean something is wrong, but it does mean the headline benchmark is a loose reference point rather than a direct comparison. The trend data and directional signals (CVR declining, AOV rising) are likely more actionable for your business than where the median lands.
See the full H1 2026 data — and benchmarks across nine other ecommerce categories — in the Shogun Benchmark Reports.
View the CVR report | View the AOV report
