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2 weeks ago | 
businessoffashion.com | Priya Rao |Kristi Weaver |BoF INSIGHTS
Once the darling of the consumer goods market, the $441 billion global beauty industry is showing signs of cooling. For years, a seemingly limitless appetite for newness in beauty fuelled robust volume and even greater pricing growth — from 2022 to 2024, the sector grew 7 percent annually. Now, geopolitical and economic uncertainty, along with market saturation, are threatening this momentum. A once-clear formula for success is now a challenging puzzle to solve.
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Jan 13, 2025 | 
businessoffashion.com | Imran Amed |BoF INSIGHTS
Over the past five years, the luxury industry experienced a period of exceptional value creation. Between 2019 and 2023, unprecedented demand for personal luxury goods — fashion, handbags, watches and jewellery among them — combined with a deep well of supply allowed the sector to achieve a 5 percent compound annual growth rate. Luxury brands outperformed global markets and achieved new profitability records.
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Jan 9, 2025 | 
businessoffashion.com | BoF INSIGHTS
Opens in new windowIn 2022, consumer confidence indexes in the US, Eurozone and China hit their lowest levels since 2005, and confidence in China once again neared record lows in August 2024. Across markets, shopper uncertainty about macroeconomic conditions remains. In the first half of 2024, consumer confidence was about 10 to 30 points below 2019 averages across the Eurozone, US and China, though confidence levels in the Eurozone and US are ticking up slightly from 2023.
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Dec 20, 2024 | 
businessoffashion.com | BoF INSIGHTS
Opens in new windowFashion brands have long courted young consumers, but 2025 could mark a turning point. As economic pressures mount, younger shoppers — often the most financially stretched — may no longer be the reliable growth engine they once were. More than half of Gen-Z consumers are worried about their financial situation in the year ahead. In response, young shoppers in the US are changing their spending habits, including around 40 percent spending less on clothing.
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Dec 10, 2024 | 
businessoffashion.com | BoF INSIGHTS
Opens in new windowDecarbonisation of fashion’s supply chain could cost $1 trillion, but it is likely more economically viable than executives think. Yet factors mask this reality:70 percent of fashion emissions occur upstream, yet suppliers struggle with the upfront costs of decarbonisation initiatives due to tight margins and high financing costs.
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Dec 4, 2024 | 
businessoffashion.com | BoF INSIGHTS
Opens in new windowThe volume of choice is working against fashion brands, negatively affecting conversion as shoppers increasingly abandon carts. 74 percent of customers report walking away from online purchases due to the volume of choice. In response, some retailers have reduced the size of their offering to increase relevancy and reduce choice paralysis.
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Nov 28, 2024 | 
businessoffashion.com | BoF INSIGHTS
Opens in new windowAfter years of impressive growth, China’s economy is now worth $18 trillion and its apparel market is the second largest in the world. In 2025, the IMF projects China’s economy will grow by 4.5 percent, outpacing global GDP growth of around 3 percent. While still higher than global GDP growth, China’s projected growth rate reflects a deceleration from the previous decade, which averaged around 7 percent growth per year from 2013 to 2019.
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Nov 20, 2024 | 
businessoffashion.com | BoF INSIGHTS
Opens in new windowIn 2024, challenger sportswear players — such as Deckers (owner of Hoka) and Asics — are expected to create over 50 percent of the segment’s value, surpassing incumbent sportswear brands known as the “Big Four” (Nike, Adidas, Puma and Under Armour) in economic profit for the first time, according to the McKinsey Global Fashion Index. Challengers have succeeded by growing revenue faster than incumbents while also expanding their profitability.
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Nov 18, 2024 | 
businessoffashion.com | BoF INSIGHTS
Opens in new windowUp until the early 2020s, global trade revolved around the relationship between the US and China. In recent years, geopolitical tensions and market shifts, coupled with a change in sourcing economics, have caused a shift in this dynamic, resulting in a “multi-polar” structure where more countries participate in global trade. This push to diversify trade flows is happening across industries.
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Nov 11, 2024 | 
businessoffashion.com | Imran Amed |Gemma D’Auria |BoF INSIGHTS
Though hard to predict even in the best of times, the fashion industry is in for a particularly tumultuous and uncertain 2025. A long-feared cyclical slowdown has arrived. Consumers, scarred by the recent period of high inflation, are increasingly price sensitive. There is also the surprising rise of dupes, the acceleration of climate change and the continued reshuffling of global trade. Regional differences, which came into focus in 2024, will become even starker in the coming year.
