Bracketing benchmarks for apparel brands

How much bracketing is normal? It varies by category, but some patterns hold across apparel.

Footwear and denim, where fit is least forgiving, tend to carry the highest multi-unit order rates. Basics and knitwear carry the least. Categories with vanity sizing see bracketing concentrated in a confused middle band of customers.

The more useful benchmark is internal: what share of your bracketing comes from repeat behavior? For most brands the answer is most of it, and that share tells you how much of the problem is fit content versus customer behavior.

Track three numbers monthly: multi-unit order rate per category, share of brackets from customers with five or more prior brackets, and keep rate per customer on bracketed orders. Those three lines tell you whether to invest in size guidance, enforcement, or both.