Nigerian Fashion Overtakes Their Travel Industry With Citizens Spending Up to $1.82bn on Clothes In 2020

by Nana Tamakloe May 4, 2021

May 4, 2021 451 views

Nigerians spent as much as $1.82 billion purchasing fashion items online in 2020. According to a PayU report, consumers in the country spent more on clothing last year than any other e-commerce category.

Fashion overtook travel and mobility to top consumer spending during the year. Other categories of online shopping expenses include electronic gadgets, video games, food and digital music.

In 2020, Nigerians expended a total of $8.06 billion on e-commerce products, representing a 6% increase of $480 million compared to the $7.58 billion spent in 2019.

More Fashion, Less Travel
Earnings from the Fashion sector slightly surpassed Travel in the past year, accounting for 22.6% of the total $8.06 billion Nigerians spent on e-commerce sites. Covid-19 lockdowns and curfews meant that many more people were compelled to shop online, leading to greater e-commerce spending among consumers.

Nigerian Fashion

Nigerians spent $1.82 billion on online fashion products in 2020, 44% higher than the $1.25 billion recorded in 2019.

Just behind Fashion, Travel amassed the second-highest spend of $1.79 billion, contributing 22.2% of total e-commerce revenue. The travel sector got the highest spending in 2019 ($3.13 billion) but the sector suffered from Covid-19 mobility restrictions and travel bans which shot down earnings by 42.9% to $1.7 billion in 2020.

As part of the wider e-commerce industry, the travel & hospitality sector comprises all payments completed on online platforms for flight booking and hotel reservations such as Travelstart, Wakanow and Hotels.ng.