Analysis Of Apparel And Textile Retail And Consumer Market In The US

This article is a speech by Ms. Wu Yan of the US Cotton Corp at the China Textile Innovation annual meeting.

My lecture today is mainly about the following aspects. First, I will give a brief introduction to the US macro economy and the retail business.

Next I will share with you the changes in consumption habits and consumption preferences of American consumers.

Then I'll do the jeans and knitted.

At this time last year, we all know that the global economy has been in the lowest level for decades. As governments have adopted some economic stimulus policies, we see that the economy is recovering gradually.

According to the French Bureau of economic consultation, according to the US Bureau of economic analysis, the US GDP increased by 1.7% in the second quarter of 2010 and increased by 2% in the third quarter.

We found

This chart shows that the trend of the two curves is approximately the same.

From September 2009 to September 2010, the retail sales of clothing increased by 3%, and the total retail sales increased by 7%.

Let's take a look at the change of retail sales in different channels.

Each point on this form represents the percentage increase or decrease in retail sales compared with the same month last year. Basically, the three curves have the same trend.

Let's look at some cases.

We see these stores like these.

Generally speaking, the retail price of clothing has dropped by three US dollars in September 2010 compared with September 2009. We can see that the major stores with a larger decline are compared with clothing products in department stores.

There is basically no change in hypermarkets and chain stores.

This curve represents the percentage change in total clothing imports from 89 to September 2010. Compared with 2008, the total volume of clothing imports in the United States dropped by 6% in 2009. This is also the largest decline in clothing imports in the United States since 1989.

This chart shows the supply share of the major suppliers of clothing imports in the United States, and the number of changes. China is at the top of the list, followed by Vietnam and Bangladesh.

China's exports of clothing accounted for 42% of all imported clothing in the United States, compared with September 2010 in September 2009, the number increased by 23%.

This chart is the top 10 suppliers of clothing imports in the United States, and the number of clothing imports in these countries has increased.

Let's take a look at the average cost of these garments exported to the United States according to the unit cost per square meter unit. We have calculated that the average unit of the world is $2.88, and those suppliers above the average are Mexico, Indonesia, India and Vietnam, with the average below China, Bangladesh, Honduras and so on.

But it's pretty close.

Next, let's take a look at the new trend of consumer habits and consumption preferences of American consumers.

The Cotton Corp also has a project team on consumer market research. Since the 95 year, we have conducted a project called lifestyle survey.

A continuous online survey of 6000 American consumers aged 13 to 70 was conducted every year to investigate their preferences for fiber, so as to get information about first-hand consumer spending habits and consumption trends.

In 2010, consumer spending in the United States was shown on both consumer goods and durable goods. Clothing rose by 6.8%, 4.9% for men and 7.9% for women.

Another look at the consumer confidence index. The consumer confidence index consists of two parts, one is the assessment of the current economic situation, the other is the expectation of future economic development, and the two draw a curve of the consumer confidence index. Now the US consumers are not particularly optimistic about the current situation, but they are quite optimistic about the future trend.

Because consumers are not very optimistic about the current personal financial situation, the number of consumers listed on this table is determined to cancel the purchase of the following products. 33% of US consumers decide to cancel the purchase of clothing, which is much lower than the proportion of eating out and buying tourism products.

In addition, of the 33% consumers who gave up clothing, 47% planned to buy clothes in the coming months.

Consumers have less money to buy clothes, which also affects their clothing buying methods.

According to our survey, 57% consumers purchase necessities, 50% consumers buy clothes when they discount, 31% of them will sell three goods, and then decide whether to buy a pair.

The proportion of consumers who buy clothes has also increased significantly, from 53% in 95 to 68%.

This morning, Du Chang also suggested that consumers are increasingly inclined to purchase rationally.

One of my American colleagues told me that he thought the Chinese were smarter than the Americans. He said the Chinese earned 10 yuan and spent 1 yuan, while the Americans made 10 yuan and spent 12 yuan. Now they want to learn from the Chinese.

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In addition, just a few speakers have mentioned that in developed countries, consumers are becoming more and more interested in low-priced clothing, and prices have become a new direction for shopping. We also asked a few questions that the high price clothing was more durable, and the proportion of consumers dropped from 08 to 39% in 33%.

On the contrary, the proportion of consumers who think that low price clothing is as good as high priced clothing has risen from 56% to 60%.

It is believed that a consumer of one share fell from 65% in 08 to 60% in 09 years.

Just now, low price has become the focus of consumers' attention. According to our survey, 88% of consumers think that the quality of clothing has a very important impact on their purchase decisions.

And 75% of consumers said that the quality of clothing made of natural fibers was even better, and 79% of consumers mentioned that they liked clothes containing cotton fibers.

This chart shows the percentage of cotton fibers in different product categories, the first is jeans, followed by shorts, then knitted shirts, woven shirts and so on.

This is the category of consumers who plan to buy products in the coming months, clothing ranked first, followed by eating out, shoes and so on.

We mentioned cowboy just now. It is a clothing category with the largest amount of cotton.

Let's look at some details of the jeans market.

We mentioned just now that compared with 2008, the total clothing of the United States in 2009 dropped by 6%.

But in 2009, compared with 2008, the import of denim clothing increased by 1%.

And from September 2009 to September 2010, imports of jeans rose by 11% over the same period last year. American consumers actually like cowboy costumes very much.

This chart shows a supply share of major importing countries of American jeans. China still tops the list, reaching 32% in 2010 and 28% in volume.

In addition to Egypt and Vietnam, the import volume of the top 10 suppliers of American cowboy clothing has increased.

This chart shows the average unit cost of the world, which is calculated on the basis of the average price of each piece exported to the denim garment in the United States rather than the dollar per square meter.

The average cost of the world is 6.88 US dollars, which is higher than the world average cost countries. Mexico, Kampuchea and China.

Countries below world average cost include Vietnam, Egypt, Indonesia, Bangladesh and Nicaragua.

I mentioned just now that American consumers are very fond of cowboys. What are the specific aspects? Each consumer has an average of seven cowboy stores and probably has three licensed jeans.

In the retail market, jeans are priced at 35 US dollars, and retailers still have room for improvement.

Where do most consumers buy cowboys? Most are hypermarkets, 26%.

Next, chain stores, specialty stores, discount stores, online shopping and so on.

Here consumers are basically divided into two parts. Older consumers prefer to buy jeans from traditional retail channels. Young consumers tend to buy jeans from specialty stores, from direct outlets in factories, or even from the Internet.

This is a different price range. In the market, the most widely distributed range is the cowboys from 20 dollars to 29.99 dollars, but the market share of jeans is less than 10 dollars.

On the one hand, because of the economic downturn, the retailer adopts a low price strategy, and on the other hand, it shows consumers' willingness and ability to buy high priced cowboy products.

Although the economic situation is not particularly good.

We can see the price of jeans in different retail channels. Apart from department stores, why do consumers buy jeans? Why do American consumers like jeans so much? The first reason is that they fit well.

The information we shared before is price and quality, which are two very important factors for consumers to buy clothing products.

But in cowboy market, we find that the price and quality are far behind the motivation of fit and comfort.

Besides, brand is not a consumer's motive to purchase.

Their loyalty to the brand is not particularly high.

Here, I list the types of jeans that men and women consumers like separately.

For men, comfort and loose money are most popular.

For women, bell bottoms, comfort and loose money are also popular.

Where do you think jeans need improvement? We find that the number one is still the factor of fit, so there is no limit to the pursuit of beauty.

Next, look at the knitted shirts Market and woven shirts.

Men chasing knitting accounted for 64%.

This shows the price of knitted shirts and woven shirts at different retail terminals, and the price of woven is higher than that of knitted fabrics.

This chart shows the proportion of cotton knitted shirts and woven shirts. The knitted shirts sold in the market contain 85% cotton and 76% woven cotton.

The import volume of cotton in the United States increased by 13%, compared with 6% in 2008, and the rebound rate was relatively large in 2009.

The main supply share of cotton knitted shirts is also listed here. China is still top of the list, Vietnam is second, followed by Honduras.

This is a form of the average unit cost in the world.

The average unit of the world is 2.64 dollars, and China has reached 3.77 dollars, so the export price of Chinese knitted shirts is now far higher than the average cost of the world.

Above the world average, Vietnam, India and Indonesia.

This is the market share of knitted shirts classified according to the style. The largest proportion is T-shirts.

I also pay attention to the proportion of knitted shirts in the market.

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Compared to 09 years, the number of woven shirts decreased by 1% over the past 08 years.

Similarly, this list also lists cotton as the main supplier country. China accounted for 8% in 2010, followed by Bangladesh, India and so on.

The average cost of woven shirts is 5.55 US dollars. China is still lower than the world average, US $5.49, including the world average price of Malaysia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Indonesia.

This is the proportion of woven shirts that are classified according to different styles. The largest proportion is casual shirts, followed by formal suits and suit shirts.

The percentage of woven cotton is very high in the men's shirt Market, accounting for 93%, but its proportion has dropped a lot in the women's shirt Market, but 61% of the women's shirts are cotton.

There are 18% woven shirts in the market which are functional. The most common function is iron free, wrinkle resistant and so on.

Next, look at the sportswear market.

Why should we pay attention to the sportswear market? Traditionally speaking, the cotton content is relatively low, but the sportswear market has been developing very fast in recent years. Now the sales volume is 55 billion dollars. In 2014, the global sales volume is expected to reach US $26 billion, and the North American market will reach US $15 billion 300 million in 2014. In 2009, the proportion of sportswear in the American Apparel retail market accounted for 11%.

We find that sportswear is becoming more and more popular nowadays.

Consumers do not wear sportswear just when they are exercising. They can wear them at home, when they are on business, or when they are shopping, or when they are eating, watching movies, teaching and working.

Nowadays, the boundary between sportswear and casual wear is becoming more and more blurred.

What is the main reason for choosing sportswear? 44%, the most important reason for choosing is sportswear and comfort. 87% of consumers think that cotton sportswear is more comfortable, 77% of them think cotton sports clothes are more suitable.

Functionality is a very important feature of sportswear. In all sportswear, 39% of sportswear is functional, and the most important ones are moisture absorption, sweating, quick drying, elasticity and so on.

Here we look at the market share of cotton's moisture absorption and sweating sportswear, which accounts for 5% of the total market share in the United States, which is very small.

We asked consumers another question: if the cotton sportswear has the function of moisture absorption and perspiration, or is there other functions, are you willing to buy cotton sports clothes or are you willing to make chemical fiber sportswear? Most consumers, more than 95% of consumers will choose cotton sports sportswear.

Only 5% of the sportswear in the US market is cotton and has the performance of moisture absorption and perspiration. Here we can see that there is a very big market opportunity in it.

The market share of sportswear in the retail market is 11%, and the average price is 88 dollars.

The Cotton Corp of the United States has invested a lot of money and manpower in the development of new products every year. Here, our company has developed two technologies of one hundred percent cotton for moisture absorption and perspiration.

This technology can quickly discharge sweat from the clothing to the outside of the garment, enabling consumers to feel more comfortable when they are wearing sportswear.

In addition, according to the needs of the market, one hundred percent cotton waterproof and breathable technologies were developed, which can be applied to jeans clothing.

There are also some techniques for iron free finishing, as well as techniques for improving the color protection of jeans.

These technologies, we have in the conference room outside the exhibition hall, there are samples of clothing for everyone to show, but the information received is also simple technical information.

If you need further understanding of these technologies, we will be happy to give you an introduction.

Finally, the environmental awareness of American consumers.

It should be said that the environmental awareness of American consumers is quite strong. According to the number of surveys, 32% of consumers will purposely pursue environmentally friendly products when buying children's clothes.

29% of consumers will pursue environmentally friendly products when buying their own clothes.

When consumers buy a product that is not environmentally friendly, 42% will condemn the manufacturer.

Although 87% of consumers are concerned about the improvement of retail prices, American consumers are concerned about the following problems, such as water quality, food pollution, air pollution, child labor, natural energy consumption, such as oil.

In addition, according to our survey, most American consumers believe that natural fibers are more environmentally friendly than synthetic fibers. Among them, the most environmentally friendly consumers of cotton fiber account for the highest proportion, reaching 90%.

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These are the main contents of my lecture today. As a partner of China's textile industry, the Cotton Corp of the United States will continue to provide you with high quality information consulting services and technical support. We hope to join hands with all of you in China's textile industry to enter a more brilliant tomorrow for China's textile industry.

Finally, I wish the 2010 China Textile Innovation annual conference a complete success.