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Apparel & Accessories
Apparel & Accessories UX Research
Research on how people browse, evaluate and buy apparel online. Explore UX guidelines, design examples and benchmarks for clothing, footwear and accessories.
Research for the way people shop for apparel
Apparel shoppers need to find the right style, judge how an item will look and choose a size with confidence. Baymard’s research turns these decisions into practical UX guidance, supported by observed shopping behavior and real site examples.
Explore three apparel research topics
Product discovery
Support browsing by style and occasion, with curated paths that help shoppers find relevant products.
Fit & sizing
Help shoppers understand measurements, fit and size conversions before choosing a size.
Product imagery
Show clothing on human models so shoppers can judge fit, length and how a product looks when worn.
Apparel & Accessories
The findings from Baymard’s large-scale testing of Apparel & Accessories sites provide you with 500+ UX guidelines, along with 13,000+ UX performance scores and 12,000+ best practice examples from Apparel, Footwear, and Accessory sites.
The UX research covers the entire online shopping experience, including:
- How to best convey ‘fit’ and ‘feel’ to users, incl. international size guides
- Product visuals, image size and interactions, color variations, etc.
- Cross-sells, incl. ‘Goes well together’, ‘buy the outfit’ etc.
- The returns process, both the pre- and post-purchase UX related to returns.
adidas, Allbirds, American Apparel, ASOS, Anine Bing, American Eagle Outfitters,
8 × Themes
Apparel research, in numbers
Observed shopping behavior and shopper surveys provide complementary evidence for the guidelines.
1,765
Research hours in the 2024 apparel study
18
US and European sites in the 2024 apparel study
1,922
US online shoppers surveyed in 2026
How the apparel research was conducted
The apparel usability study released in October 2024 involved 1,765 hours of research across 18 US and European sites. It covered apparel, sportswear, jewelry and footwear retailers at discount and midrange price points; luxury retail was studied separately.
A June 2026 survey of 1,922 US online shoppers adds quantitative insights into fit, reviews, returns and other purchase decisions. Together, these studies combine observed behavior with shoppers’ reported needs.
The apparel findings also draw on Baymard’s wider ecommerce research. Each guideline explains the usability issue, the supporting evidence and examples of how to address it.
See how apparel sites apply the research
Explore apparel UX benchmarks and real site examples to see how retailers approach common design challenges. In a demo, we can show how the criteria, guidelines and examples connect.
How apparel teams use the research
Testimonials
“I can not tell you how much help your benchmark studies have been for our company, e-commerce and UX teams. We have used and continue to use these reports for baseline benchmarks as we build test protocols or eye tracking scripts etc. in lab.”
Testimonials
“I really like the work Baymard Institute does around usability. Their articles often get my Ecom gears turning.”
Looking for an expert review of your site?
Baymard’s Apparel UX Audit applies the research to your own site, with an expert evaluation and prioritized recommendations tailored to your experience.
See the apparel research in action
Book a demo with our team to explore relevant guidelines, annotated examples and benchmarks—and how they can support your next apparel UX project.