Fashion E-commerce Benchmarks
Typical benchmark ranges for online fashion stores. Figures are editorial estimates compiled from public research and practitioner experience — not formal citations or aggregated merchant data.
Want to know how these ranges are sourced and calculated? Read our methodology.
Fashion profit benchmarks — at a glance
Online fashion stores average a 45% gross margin and a 8% net margin, with a typical refund rate of 24% and customer acquisition cost of $30.
These are typical ranges compiled from public e-commerce research, company filings, and practitioner experience — not formal citations. See how these figures are calculated →
Why these numbers look like this
Fashion's 24% average refund rate is the highest of any industry we track, driven almost entirely by sizing inconsistency across brands and the expectation of free returns. This creates a double margin hit: stores eat both the shipping cost on returns and the 15% ad spend to acquire customers who may not keep what they order. Seasonal inventory risk compounds the problem — unsold seasonal stock typically gets discounted 40-60%, turning profitable gross margin into break-even or worse.
At a Glance
45%
Avg gross margin
8%
Avg net margin
2.6x
Avg ROAS
$30
Avg CAC
$75
Avg order value
$230
Avg CLV
Profit Margin
View details →ROAS
View details →Customer Acquisition
View details →Order Value
View details →Lifetime Value
View details →Compare your store to these benchmarks
Drop your Shopify Orders CSV into the CSV Profit Checker or use the Profit Calculator to see how your margins compare to the fashion industry average.
Read the full Fashion profit guide
Want the narrative breakdown behind these numbers? See our Fashion store profit margin guide for costs, seasonality, and margin-improvement tactics.
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