What Changes Does The Epidemic Bring To Textile And Clothing Consumption

The global epidemic situation is one after another, textile and clothing industry is also in the economic recovery. The new situation has accelerated the technological transformation of the industry, spawned new formats and new models, and also triggered the transformation of consumer demand.

From the perspective of consumption pattern, retail is shifting to online

The trend of retail transfer to online is obvious, and will continue to rise in a certain period of time. In the United States, the penetration rate of e-commerce is predicted to reach 24% in 2024 in 2019, but the share of online sales will reach 33% by July 2020. In 2021, although the concerns about the epidemic continue, the US clothing spending rebounds rapidly and has a new growth trend. Global clothing expenditure growth is expected to be optimistic, the impact of the epidemic on people's lifestyle will continue, so the general trend of online sales has been accelerated and continued.

Although the epidemic has led to fundamental changes in consumer shopping patterns and rapid growth in online sales, even if the epidemic is completely over, the online and offline shopping mode will be fixed and become the new normal. According to statistics, 17% of consumers will buy all or most of their goods online, and the number of people shopping only in physical stores has dropped from 71% to 51%. Of course, for clothing buyers, the physical store still has the advantages of trial and easy consultation.

From the perspective of consumer products, sportswear and functional clothing will become a new hot spot in the market

The epidemic situation has further aroused consumers' attention to health, and the sportswear market will usher in great development. According to statistics, last year, China's sportswear sales amounted to 19.4 billion US dollars (mainly including sportswear, outdoor wear and sportswear), which is expected to increase by 92% in five years; The U.S. sportswear sales have reached $70 billion and are expected to grow at an annual growth rate of 9% in the next five years.

From the perspective of consumer expectations, the more comfortable clothing with the functions of moisture absorption and perspiration, temperature control, odor removal, wear resistance and water splashing resistance is more likely to attract consumers. According to the report, 42% of respondents believe that wearing comfortable clothes can improve their mental health, making them feel happy, calm, leisure and even safe. Compared with man-made fiber, 84% of the respondents think that cotton clothing is the most comfortable. There is still a lot of room for development in the consumer market of cotton textile products. Therefore, more attention should be paid to the functional technology of cotton.

From the perspective of consumption concept, more attention has been paid to sustainable development

From the current trend, consumers have high expectations for the sustainability of clothing, hoping to reduce environmental pollution from clothing production to recycling in a more environmentally friendly way. The results showed that 35% of respondents were aware of plastic particles pollution, while 68% of them claimed that it would affect their clothing purchase decisions. This requires the textile industry to start from raw materials, pay attention to the degradability of materials, and guide consumers' purchase decisions through the popularization of sustainable concept.

In addition to degradability, from the perspective of consumers, improving durability and reducing waste of resources is also one of the means of sustainable development. Ordinary consumers are used to judge the durability of clothing by washing resistance and fiber composition. Affected by their dressing habits, they prefer cotton products more emotionally. Based on the consumers' demand for cotton quality and durability, the wear resistance and fabric strength of cotton fabric need to be further enhanced in terms of textile function improvement.

(source: China Cotton Textile Industry Association)

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