British Supermarket Becomes The First Stop For Children's Clothing Shopping

　 Convenience is the main purchasing psychological factor for today's children's clothing buyers. Mintel's latest research finds that more and more shoppers throw their children's clothes into the shopping basket of weekly stores.

Mintel's research shows that the sales value of supermarkets is the largest proportion of consumer spending for the first time, accounting for 29% of the total market share of children's clothing. At the same time, children's clothing sales industry, such as clothing diversification store (26.5%), department store (7%), at best, only by focusing on high-end market to maintain market share. The traditional mail order purchase (3.5%) has dropped sharply due to the increasing online sales. Mintel now estimates that online sales account for about 12% of sales.

For children's clothing shoppers, supermarkets are also the first stop for children's clothing shopping. About 7 out of the 10 consumers (68%) buy children's clothing in supermarkets, making the supermarket the main children's clothing destination in the country. Now 25 million Britons buy children's clothing from supermarkets, and another 8 million 500 thousand buy school uniforms at the same destination. In addition, in a short span of 4 years, the market share of children's clothing in supermarkets has doubled from 14% in 2004 to 29% in 2009.

The children's wear market has also experienced a difficult period. The double effects of the slowdown in the UK economy and the visibility of retailers have led to a decline in market value. In 2009, sales of children's clothing rebounded to 5 billion pounds, while in 2007 and 2008, it showed a downward trend. The decline in recent years is due to low cost imports, low price supermarkets and discount stores, as well as the recent recession. As consumer confidence grows, sales are expected to return to growth in 2010, but in the next 5 years, the market is expected to grow by only 3%, reaching 5 billion 200 million in 2014.

Although girls' clothing will outstrip trousers in terms of value, the annual sales volume is slightly higher than 2 billion, while infant clothing is the real spark of children's clothing market. About 1/3 (31%) of children's clothing sales, infant clothing in recent years is the real winner. In recent 5 years, infant clothing sales have increased by 9% to 1 billion 500 million, while girls' clothing and boys' clothing sales have dropped by more than 3%. Economic pressure has a serious impact on clothing sales for boys and girls. On the contrary, infant clothing is very prosperous because the number of babies is increasing, parents are getting richer and older people are buying gifts for babies.