Online consumers look for what they already know

E-commerce has made the selection of products infinite, but not the ability to choose. In the fashion industry, when uncertainty rises, consumers turn to familiar brands and the most recognizable products.

In 2025, EY asked 1,672 luxury fashion shoppers which channels they had used for their most recent purchases. Forty-nine percent had shopped on a fashion house’s website. Twenty-one percent had shopped on an online multi-brand retailer.

It’s not just a difference between channels. It’s a different architecture of choice.

In a multi-brand store, the products come before the decision. The consumer walks in, looks around, compares items, and may be drawn to something they hadn’t anticipated. Online, the process is reversed. The search bar waits for a name, the algorithm interprets past behavior, and the homepage adapts to what has already been viewed.

Digital eliminates the distance between intention and product. That’s its strength, but it’s also why it tends to narrow down the choices.

In fashion, this mechanism becomes even more evident. An unfamiliar product raises a series of questions that the screen can’t fully answer: how does it fit, how much does it weigh, what’s the texture of the fabric, how will it age, and will the color be the same as in the photo?

A well-known brand alleviates some of this uncertainty. Consumers don’t have to reassess the value of an item every time because they already have an experience, an image, or at least a reputation to rely on. Familiarity acts as a form of insurance. The higher the price, the riskier the purchase becomes.

In fact, EY notes that 56% of aspirational consumers prefer established brands. This does not prove that digital technology is what makes them cautious. It does show, however, that while research and personalization are becoming more efficient, brand recognition continues to guide their choices. Discovery, therefore, has not disappeared. It has simply become separate from the purchase.

It happens first: in content, in the people we follow, in conversations, on the street, and in places that shape our tastes. E-commerce comes into play later, when that desire has already taken the form of a brand, a model, or a recognizable code.

For an emerging brand, simply being available online isn’t enough. Adding products to the catalog is pointless if the consumer has no reason to look for them. The real competition takes place before the visit to the website, at the moment when a name enters the memory and becomes a possible option.

Digital technology has democratized availability, not trust. It can show everything, but it cannot make every choice equally safe.

That’s why the problem for lesser-known brands isn’t being found on the endless shelf. It’s being present in the consumer’s mind before the search even begins.