Reflections On The Development Of The Clothing Market For The Elderly

According to the data of the Ministry of social welfare and charitable promotion of the Ministry of civil affairs, the consumption scale of the elderly population in China will exceed 1 trillion and 400 billion in 2010 and 13 trillion yuan by 2030.

Although the number of elderly people is increasing, the elderly clothing in China is still increasing.

In the traditional view, it is believed that the elderly are the marginal people of the society. However, they neglect that after entering the aging society, the huge elderly groups have laid the foundation for forming a huge consumption market for the elderly.

Having hundreds of millions of old people's consumption market is the inevitable business opportunity and trend of China in the future.

Current situation of clothing market for the elderly

At present, the fabrics used by the elderly in the market are mostly low cost chemical fibers or coarse cotton fabrics. The fabrics made of these fabrics are soft and close, revealing the old people's "rich" physique, and showing the old man's loose old style.

Old clothes are not varieties, but they are old fashions. They can not keep up with fashion.

In some shopping malls with good clothing sales, there are few clothing brands for the elderly and the exclusive clothing brands for the elderly.

Old clothes are mostly associated with goods stalls and reduced prices.

There are very few clothing brands for the elderly, the most common ones are suits, and some elderly people are actually not practical for the elderly.

Some people who run clothing stores also say that the clothing market for the elderly is not as broad as the young people. There are two extremes in the elderly consumer groups. On the one hand, the elderly are very well off, and their consumption ideas are more in pursuit of taste. Therefore, they prefer to choose the middle and high grade clothes. Most of the elderly in the economy are more thrifty, some of them are very frugal for years, or they only buy very cheap clothes. The overall consumer market is not very active. Sales of clothing for the elderly are easy to suppress. Many garment factories also adopt conservative practices in design, thus creating new breakthroughs in the old clothing styles.

Therefore, shopping malls are not unwilling to sell clothing for the elderly. The key is that the clothing brands of the elderly are too few, or the grade is too low, which is not consistent with the location of the shopping mall.

In addition, most elderly people do not wear fashionable clothes, only paying attention to benefits.

Because of the low profit of clothing for the elderly, it is difficult to arouse interest of large enterprises.

Plus, most of today's fashion designers focus on creating personalized fashion clothes. In fact, in their minds, the understanding of elderly clothing still stays in the stage of popular clothing in the past, and few people have found that in the minds of many elderly people, clothes have been locked in the pursuit of individuation, diversification and branding.

So large shopping malls are mainly targeted at middle and high-end consumer groups, mainly young and middle-aged people.

The old clothing business is too thin, and there are not many elderly people who like to go shopping, so they usually do not move on the consumption of old age, let alone set up special counters for the elderly.

Main problems existing in clothing for the elderly

Although the demand for clothing for older people is large, their assessment of the clothing market for the elderly is not very high.

A survey of the satisfaction of elderly clothing shows that 76% of the elderly are generally not satisfied, and 10% of the elderly do not think they are satisfied.

The dissatisfaction is mainly manifested in the chest, waist, abdomen, buttocks and upper arms. The other dissatisfaction is "monotonous color" (35.6%), "high price" (25.7%), and "poor quality" (14.9%).

The survey also shows that: 41% of the elderly believe that with the change of the times and the improvement of living standards, it is necessary for the elderly to dress up.

This shows that although the traditional clothing consumption concept of old people is frugal, there are also some elderly people who have strong compensatory consumption psychology, and are eager to compensate for the consumption demand and desire which have not been realized before.

Moreover, with the gradual increase in the number of quasi elderly people who enjoy the concept of enjoying life and pursuing quality life, modern seniors are becoming more and more conscious of aesthetic, entertainment, healthy needs and desire for consumption. They are more active, stronger and willing to invest and consume their own material and spiritual needs than the old ones.

According to the relevant experts, clothing consumption accounts for 1/3 of the proportion of the elderly consumption area, and the consumption demand of clothing has been developed from the traditional basic functional needs of protecting the feet against the cold to the new trend of pursuit of taste, fashion, environmental protection and health.

The above findings remind the clothing industry that there are still many areas to be improved in catering to the preferences of the elderly consumers and providing marketable clothing for the elderly.

At present, there are problems in the elderly clothing Market: first, the "single variety".

The clothing of the elderly in China is still at a low stage and lacks branding. No matter YOUNGOR, Shan Shan, or crocodile, no one is willing to turn their attention to the clothing market for the elderly, though the Western clothing is extended to casual wear. The old people's clothing industry is alone and lingering. The two is the old style.

Now there are special designers for children and young people's fashion. According to the changing seasons and the changing trend, new styles are constantly being introduced, but the clothing of the elderly is a pattern for many years, and the three is "body discomfort".

This seems to be a difficult problem faced by the elderly at home and abroad.

According to University of Arizona's survey of 7000 elderly people in the United States, as the age increases, the physique of the elderly will generally change as follows: because of spinal compression, the height of the elderly may be reduced by 3~4 inches; the waist will become thicker; the hip fat will increase; the buttock sagging; the abdominal protuberance; the shoulders will bend towards the front side, and the head will lean forward.

In general, the ready-made clothing manufacturers only enlarge the size of the clothing for the elderly, but loose can not bring the perfect fit; four, the cloth is low-grade.

Under the condition of market economy, manufacturers and businesses are not fully aware of the scale of the long-term market in pursuit of the maximum profits of the current enterprises. They believe that with the passing of youth, the purchasing desire of the elderly is also decreasing. They are cautious in their spending and unwilling to spend money on clothing, which is a disadvantaged consumer group.

Although the technology of the elderly clothing is simple, but the demand is small, the price is low, and the profit space is very limited. The profit of making a fashionable garment is ten times or even dozens of times that of the old man's clothing. Moreover, in view of the special needs of the old people, the funds invested in the development are higher and the market risk is large, so the fabric and color of the old clothing in the market are really not flattering.

Prospects for the development of clothing for the elderly

People who are entering the age of 60 are almost all born before and after the founding of new China. In terms of education level, work experience and consumption habits, the elderly are quite different from before.

In particular, the elderly in cities and towns have accumulated wealth after decades of hard work and struggle. Most of them have stable retirement and pension income.

They basically have no debt burden and no child rearing expenses. On the contrary, their children are generally willing to pay a certain amount of filial piety to their parents.

As time goes on, the middle-aged people who are in the quasi elderly population will gradually enter the ranks of the elderly. Therefore, the economic source of the elderly will not only come from the pensions, but also other sources, such as commercial insurance returns, various investment returns and so on. Therefore, the old people's disposable funds are abundant and can be converted to real purchasing power as far as possible.

From the perspective of the consumption ability of the elderly, a survey by the China Aging Science Research Center shows that 42.8% of the urban elderly in China now have deposits.

It is estimated that the total pension of the elderly in China will reach 838 billion 300 million yuan this year, and it will reach 28145 billion yuan by 2020, and it will increase to 73219 billion yuan by 2030.

It can be seen that at present, the demand for elderly clothing is large in China's scale of elderly population, purchasing power and consumption tendency.

With a vast potential market, it is possible to become a target market for industrial operation.

Based on the calculation of 150 million old people in our country, if the average annual increase of 2 garments per person is calculated, there will be nearly 300 million clothing market every year. By 2040, 400 million elderly people will have 800 million clothing markets. Aging population will bring huge business opportunities to the clothing market.

On the one hand, it is a promising market prospect, on the one hand, it is an embarrassing market situation. In fact, the elderly clothing market has broad room for growth. It is important for enterprises to think more about it.

Thoughts and suggestions on developing elderly clothing

1. comfort is the main factor.

Comfort is the preferred factor for the elderly to buy clothes. Therefore, producers should choose cotton and linen and other very soft materials on the fabric. Secondly, it is convenient for the elderly to wear them in the style design.

At present, the elderly clothing bought in the shopping mall is mainly reflected in the style, color and size, while the overseas clothing for the elderly is embodied in functions, such as buttons on clothes can be placed on the shoulders, and the front and back pieces are untied, so that the elderly shoulder pain can be easily worn out.

This new design not only reflects the accurate capture of the consumption characteristics of the elderly, but also reflects the maturity of the development of the elderly clothing from abroad.

2. price strategy.

Price plays a very important role in the minds of the elderly. Besides the beauty of the old clothes, the price of the old clothes is cheaper, so that more elderly customers can be attracted.

The elderly have accumulated a wealth of life experience, are rational consumers, and rarely pursue high priced fashion brands as young people do.

Therefore, when pricing clothing for elderly people, they can neither drive up prices nor blindly lower prices. They should pay attention to the price value ratio of clothing, which is in line with the evaluation criteria of the elderly.

3. set up counters and stores.

The location of shopping for elderly people is mainly concentrated in large shopping malls and small shops away from home.

The choice of shopping malls is because the quality of goods there is guaranteed, and generally provides better shopping environment and services.

In order to avoid the phenomenon that the elderly can't find a clothing for the elderly in a big circle, we can consider setting up an old clothing counter, bringing together all kinds of brand old clothes to facilitate the purchase of the elderly.

At the same time, the elderly are usually reluctant to run around because of their inconveniences.

Therefore, elderly clothing stores can be set up in residential areas, providing elderly clothing and matching shoes, hats and accessories, which can increase the matching purchase of the elderly.