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CONSUMERS TRENDS/ BY AGE
source:
www.cottoninc.com
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Over the past decade, consumers’ love of shopping for apparel has declined across the board…
 the Spring 2005 Textile Consumer survey, carried out by Cotton Incorporated’s Lifestyle Monitor™, focuses on comparing three generations — Generation X, the Baby Boomers, and the Silent Generation — with respect to how their attitudes toward apparel shopping have changed from a decade ago. The timeline to the right shows the years commonly accepted as defining these generations.
Generational Age Groups
| | ages in 1995 | ages in2004 | | Generation X | 18-30 | 27-39 | | Baby Boomers | 31–49 | 40–58 | | Silent Generation | 50–67 | 59–70* |
In 1995, 53% of Generation X said they either liked or loved to shop for apparel, compared with only 42% in 2004.
Shopping enjoyment has experienced similar double-digit declines among Baby Boomers and the Silent Generation: in 2004, only 31% and 28% of these groups, respectively, said they liked or loved to shop for clothes. Historically, consumers’ love of shopping declines with age; however, the current retail climate is especially challenging for the apparel market.
one challenge faced by apparel retailers and manufacturers is that consumers are spending a greater share of their money on other products and services (e.g. cell phones, medical services, etc.) Clothing was left with only a 4.0% share of consumers’ total expenditures in 2004, down from 4.9% in 1995.
When the Monitor asked consumers what products they preferred to shop for, fewer Gen-Xers and Baby Boomers opted for apparel than a decade ago, and more preferred to shop for electronics and groceries.
However, a growing preference for clothes shopping has emerged in the Silent Generation. In 1995, only 27% of 59- to 70-year-olds (who included the oldest members of this generation) said they preferred to shop for clothing, but clothes shopping was favoured by 41% of today’s 59- to 70-year-olds.
Consumers’ declining interest in apparel shopping likely is related to the significant increase in the percentage of consumers, across generations, who say they have too many clothes and do not need to shop for more. Reporting overflowing closets in 2004 were 38% of Gen-Xers (up 12 points from 1996), 51% of Boomers (up 17 points), and 69% of the Silent Generation (up 17 points). Consumers seem to have reached a wardrobe saturation point as a result of the availability of inexpensive apparel offerings.
Another factor that could have lessened consumers’ desire to shop for apparel is an apparent shift away from shopping as a social pastime. From 1995 to 2004, fewer consumers say they are asked for advice on clothing (43% of Gen-Xers, down 5 points, and 33% of Boomers, down 5 points), and fewer say they feel better about their apparel purchases when they have a second opinion (51% of Gen-Xers, down 12 points, and 42% of Boomers, down 6 points). These declines suggest that fewer consumers are sharing their clothes-shopping experiences with others.
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