What: For many consumers, the endless feed of new styles offered by online retailers like Shein, The RealReal and Grailed is as much about entertainment as shopping.

Why is it important: The age-old ways brands have drawn shoppers back to their sites and apps is with email prompts, promotions and, most importantly, new stuff people will want to buy. Fast fashion was built on this operating model, and it’s a key ingredient of some of the most-addictive shopping experiences.

Shein, regularly uploads thousands of new items daily. But this sort of hook isn’t only found at Shein or even just in fast fashion. Resale sites and apps like The RealReal, Grailed, Poshmark and others have a similar appeal. Theirs is a slower but nonetheless steady stream of novel items to browse multiple times a day for some users.

Fast fashion keeps getting faster, more consumers are buying clothes online and they’re increasingly doing so through handheld computers we call smartphones that allow them to shop whenever and wherever they like.

The boom in online resale has added a curious dimension to the situation, since buying used is arguably one of the more effective ways to counter fashion’s overproduction. But resale sites can still tap into the desire to see new items all the time.

Non-tech trends are contributing. Drops and collaborations provide a regular drip of hyped goods and fashion’s pop-culture appeal has only broadened, fuelling the appetite for clothing.

The result is more shopping sites and apps you can visit daily, or sometimes repeatedly in a day, from your couch or wherever you are. It’s much like scrolling through Instagram and just looking at the clothes, to relax, to avoid work, to kill time during commercials, is almost as good as buying them. More than just physical products, they’re digital media too.

Key to e-commerce success: treating clothing as content