OK to omit quantity box in fashion ecommerce stores?

Question

I notice some of the big fashion ecommerce stores have omitted the quantity box on their product details page (still visible on the cart page though), and I was wondering if it's OK for me to do the same?

I reckon they've done it because there are very few cases where the customers would want multiple quantities of something (thus if it ain't used it'll just serve as clutter and hinder conversion). Should they want two of the same item, they could just click "Add to cart" twice. Should they want one for themselves and one for their friend, they'd be better off making a separate order as a gift or buying their friend a gift card. I also reckon it depends on the type of site too - a quantity box would be far more important for say a hardware store.

What do you guys think?

Answer 1

Without knowing the site, and audience it's hard to say:

If you already know that for your audience multiple purchases of the same item are a rarity, and you also know this is a hard-to-break behaviour (i.e. people just don't buy 2 pairs of the same $120 jeans at a time), then I'd say go for it. Also I'd say it depends on the number of replenishment items you carry. People often buy multiples of t-shirts/socks/accessories/etc.. so you'd want to look carefully at the impact to sales of those items if you make the change.

This is the perfect kind of thing to A/B test: What impact does moving the quantity box from the product detail page to the cart have on sales?