Global Financial Crisis, U.S Housing Market Crash, Million’s of Jobs around the world lost, and Hundreds of Thousands of Small and large businesses, companies & corporations around the globe shut there doors. And the clothing industry met the same fate as many banks and small businesses around the world did, tons and tons of clothing lines gone over night. Clothing makers everywhere could no longer afford there work places, offices, workers or even cotton. As many T-Shirt Brands will know, cotton prices have been very volatile in recent times.
Is the Clothing Industry recovering?
So Where are the Clothing Brands today? Are we better or worse? Is the clothing industry Recovering? What do today’s numbers say and what do they predict for the clothing industry future? I’ll try to cover this and show you some interesting numbers that matter to us T-Shirt Designers, makers , sellers!
Interesting Numbers…..
Firstly I’ll get to current Stats and numbers that give us a bigger picture of what we are dealing with right now.
- The world clothing and textile industry (clothing, textiles, footwear from shoe hero, etc) reached $2,560 trillion in 2010
- Organically grown cotton had a rise to over $5 billion in 2010
- American’s spent on average, $1747 in 2010 on Clothing, Footwear and Services related to them.
These Three Stats do show a pretty good big picture for our clothing industry, But we do know that lots more brands and clothing line’s have since closed up shop.
One Stat that makes me really think is this: Online Shopping in the USA Alone made $226 billion in 2012. This is huge,and many fashion labels are to thank for that.
And even better is according to projections released by Forrester Research Inc , by 2016 American’s will spend $327 billion that year shopping online.
And to lower costs of running real brick and mortar shops, hiring more workers, storing stock, plus all the bills that go with running a store, More and more brands are moving
to the world of online shopping.
And whats great about shopping online? We’ll its done at home in your underwear, on your smartphone…..in your underwear. And with gadgets like iPad’s and other devices like these landing in more and more peoples laps
Online shopping from anywhere in the world, any time, with little to no hassles that ‘Real Life’ shopping has these days.
Spending Money on your brand online!
More people Spend more money online then what they would have in a real store , this is due to a number of factors.
More aggressive discounting on products can be done in online stores, And better deals them self’s can be done (24hr daily deals, free postage , buy one get one half price,Like our Facebook page for Discount codes etc.) And these can be made up in seconds online,which would take a real store days or even weeks to prepare.
And as i wrote before, Smartphones and tablet sale’s have gone thru the roof over the past 2-3 years which has added to people spending there money online Via there handheld devices.
Quick Tip: Does your website work well on smartphones and tablets? How can you check? Well do you have a smartphone or iPad? I’m guessing you know your own web address…Check out your own website on your device, make a look at it, check to make sure all the links work, all the pages look clean and fit on the screen, Are there any bugs or glitches? get your buddy’s to check out your website on there smartphones and see what they think of it.
So where has the GFC left the clothing industry, And where do you fit into all of this?
To look at the overview of the industry in 2013, Its more online today then it was in 2008, there are more people today buying clothing online then ever before. And more people today are spending more cash online then in real retail stores.
While a few of the big guys fell when the GFC hit, along with a huge bunch of the little guys, there are still a crazy amount of really great clothing brands online today, with new and interesting designs and styles. They are pushing the extreme’s in design and its paying off for them.
Some businesses will always find it hard to be successful, Some it will come easy to them, but at the end of the day, its all about what your customers like to see from you, and what they are willing to pay for that.
But if your a little guy right now, getting those few sales here and there. Keep pushing! No ones dream happens over night, and building a successful brand is hard, most likely one of the hardest things you’ll do in your life. BUT if and when you make it to what you think successful is to you, it will all be worth it. You’ll make mistakes along the way, probably more then you’d like to make, but you’ll learn from them,and change your brand to make sure those mistakes don’t happen again, and your brand will be stronger for it.
Remember, Online spending is improving every year, more and more people, so use your great brand and get out there and be apart of this great story we call ‘The Clothing Industry!’
