What you need to know

While women continue to prioritise buying new clothes over other areas of spend, with the womenswear market rising by 4% to £26 billion in 2014, sales slowed compared with the previous year (4.6%) due to high levels of discounting.

While females aged 16-24 remain the most active clothes buyers, an ageing female population who are increasingly buying more clothes online will mean that older women will exert more influence on the market in the coming years. Retailers will need to focus even more on fit and ensuring that their clothing collections flatter and fit more mature and larger sizes and body shapes.

In order to stay ahead of the game, retailers will need to experiment more with the latest technology such as smart fitting rooms and e-sizing technology to improve the shopping experience.

Products covered in this report

The market size for womenswear includes women’s outerwear, but excludes underwear, nightwear, footwear and fashion accessories.

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