Fashion magazine toronto

Fashion fanatics - consumer behavior

Retail industry practices and the buying habits of the fashion-conscious sometimes seem incompatible. But Pricewaterhouse Coopers L.L.P.'s latest Softgoods Retail Preview study explains why trendsetters who insist on having items first often pay higher prices.

Consumer behavior and attitudes support a "just-in-time" inventory strategy that enables the stylish to stay that way. The fashion forward typically pay the most when stocked items match current trends.

Retailers buy products in predetermined cycles, but no matter how hard they try they may find themselves missing the latest fashion wave. This results in backlogs of unsold inventory that subsequently requires steep discounts to move.

A New Attitude

Consumer behavior is changing: Shoppers are making more frequent but smaller purchases rather than buying entire outfits. And the just-in-time philosophy tends to increase shopping-trip frequency as consumers seek discounts on different items each time they shop.

A lack of synchronization of the retail supply side and consumer buying cycle tends to make customers less loyal and lucrative to specific retailers, with stores competing on price to lure patrons, according to Pricewaterhouse. These shoppers encourage stores to offer discounts on a variety of products year-round.

Shopping for clothes is recreation for about 50% of consumers, while 33% wish they had more time to browse. One out of two say they enjoy reading advertisements from favorite retailers.

Products are increasingly being marketed in more specifically defined and smaller categories, such as "youth clothing." The popularity of off-price specialty stores, shops outside of malls and upscale department stores also appears to be growing.

Most consumers say a marked-down price is the No. 1 factor in making an apparel purchase.

The most important reason cited in the Pricewaterhouse study for not buying at a particular store is looking for the same item at a lower cost elsewhere.

SUBSCRIBER FILES

COSMOPOLITAN 853,184 subscribers Direct Media Inc. Greenwich, CT

ELLE 391,838 subscribers HFM List Management New York

GENTLEMEN'S QUARTERLY 412,044 subscribers Millard Group Inc. Peterborough, NH

GLAMOUR 1,051,921 subscribers Millard Group Inc. Peterborough, NH

HARPER'S BAZAAR 509,519 subscribers Direct Media Inc. Greenwich, CT

MADEMOISELLE 668,074 subscribers Millard Group Inc. Peterborough, NH

MIRABELLA 249,647 subscribers HFM List Management New York

BUYER FILES

INTERNATIONAL MALE 193,422 12-month catalog buyers Fasano and Associates Los Angeles

* Fashion in America knows no borders. U.S. retail sales of apparel total $172 billion annually, with demand about equally split for fashion imports and domestically manufactured products, says the Garment Industry Development Corp. (GIDC), New York.

* Six retail conglomerates capture $9 out of every $10 spent on apparel, according to a study conducted by NPD Group, Port Washington, NY. The fashion conscious congregate at stores owned by Belk, Dayton-Hudson, Dillard's, Federated, May Co. and Saks inc.

* The nation's most formal dressers tend to live in the Northeast, while Americans living in the West generally dress the most casually, an NPD Group survey shows. Southerners typically dress less formal than Northeasterners but not as casual as Westerners.

* New York is nirvana for fashion addicts. Virtually all U.S. fashion media is based there, along with more than 5,100 fashion showrooms. About 28% of all women's dresses, coats and sportswear worn in the United States are manufactured in the Big Apple, according to the GIDC.

* Apparel became the leading product category for Web sales in 1997, surpassing sales of books, electronics, food, flowers and music on America Online.

* Expectations are high that the fashion forward will embrace futuristic techno-clothing. Internet World magazine predicts wallet PCs and wearable computers will become fashion statements in the not-so-distant future.

* Fashion consciousness carries a psychological cost, according to research conducted by the University of Toronto. The study determined that women who read magazine advertisements featuring skinny models typically suffer from low self-esteem more than women who don't read fashion publications.