This week, the British Retail Consortium announced that apparel prices have deflated, with June making it the 14th consecutive month of falling prices. Their reporting revealed price drops of 3.4% on non-food goods, which includes clothing, on the UK market.
But our data doesn’t paint such a bleak picture, and highlights the need for greater granularity than the BRC’s reporting offers.
We’ve seen that new products arrivals in June in men’s and children’s mass market t-shirts have actually risen by 0.8% and 21.7% year on year and women’s new arrivals in denim have risen 3.9% year on year. However, children’s and women’s mass market footwear have gone down by 0.6% and 15.3% year on year.
Pricing is certainly vulnerable at the moment and the findings highlight how critical it is for retailers to have access to product and category specific live data. The data shows hope in these new arrivals – well-designed, fresh product is a worthwhile and valuable investment for retailers.