Online retailers are in for a treat. To mark the Online Retailers Industry Awards, StarTrack has released a report with some pretty useful insights about the online apparel industry. You can download their report for free here.

What return options should you offer customers? When do people want their parcels delivered? How long do consumers think is an appropriate time to return a product? What really drives our online shopping decisions?

These are the kinds of questions the report answers, with easily digestible illustrations and messages that are applicable to the broader online retail sector.

With some extensive market research, reaching more than 10,000 online retail consumers, the report offers information richer than most retailers could garner from a survey of their customers or through in-house research.

The report breaks down the market into consumer groups based on lifestyle, income and attitude, outlining the key motivations behind each group’s browsing and purchasing behaviours.

Paul Fanthorpe, the report’s author and GM of customer research and insights at Australia Post, told Inside Retail it will help online retailers to gain the competitive advantage in this growing industry.

“This report is packed with insights on everything from browsing behaviour to expectations around delivery times, it’s got something for any online retailer.”

Apparel is the fastest growing online retail sector in Australia, reaching $4.1b in the year to March 2015, according to the report.

But there is a lot of variance across online stores when it comes to shipping prices, returns policies and browsing experience, leaving many customers confused and disillusioned.

In fact, more than half of consumers never return products, saying the process is just too hard. The report has some great pointers on how to overcome these roadblocks.

If you’re deciding which delivery options to offer your customers, or you simply want to avoid mistakes and satisfy your customers, this report can help you base a decision on hard data rather than gut instinct.

You can access more industry insights and thought leadership content on the StarTrack website. Watch this space.