Shoppers Really Want to Wear Their Clothes the Second They Buy Them
Nothing was worse than buying back to school clothes in the summer as a kid and having to wait a few weeks for the temperatures to drop enough to wear them. And not much has changed now that we’re adults. A new survey conducted by retail research agency Verdict found that 85.6 percent of clothing shoppers say they like to buy clothing that they can wear right away, for the current weather. More than half (51.4 percent) of clothing shoppers say they do not like to buy clothing too far in advance of the season ahead — which is hard to do because most retailers launch their seasonal lines months before that season begins.
Clearly, the traditional stocking/buying cycle is becoming obsolete as more shoppers remember they have a Labor Day barbecue next week and nothing to wear, need to stock up on tank tops because of an unexpected heat wave, or see a friend wearing adorable frock on Snapchat and need to have it for a date that very night. If any of these things happened right now, we’d have to go to the clearance section because the down coats the stores are stocking ATM just won’t cut it.
The Verdict researchers think social media is a major catalyst. “Social media has shortened fashion cycles, and created a see now, buy now, wear now mentality while generating constant desire for new products.” We can definitely relate to that.
Some stores and designers are staying on top of the buy-now-wear-now trend with transeasonal clothing and reactive launches. Zara has flexible phasing, reactive product drops and frequent visual merchandising updates. That explains why you always see stylish layering on the mannequins. Burberry is straying from the traditional high-end norms and will be making their collections “seasonless,” available to buy immediately, branding them February and September as opposed to the traditional S/S and A/W, according to the study.
If more retailers jump on board, say goodbye to store-window-fueled end of summer sadness in June or Christmas shopping stress in October.
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