COTTON USA Embrace Nature, Choose Cotton

NEWS

Quality - the key desirable for fashion shoppers

Fashion experts now agree; consumers are changing their shopping habits, according to the latest insights into consumer trends.

After a decade of deflation and growing disposability in the way consumers buy fashion, they are now turning to buying fewer, but better pieces. Partly driven by the economy and also by an increasing awareness from consumers of the environmental effect of their shopping decisions, a growing number of shoppers are thinking harder about their clothing purchases.

Quality has become a key desirable for fashion shoppers. This trend makes the COTTON USA Mark – the 20-year-old trademark distinguishing superior products made from cotton grown in the U.S. – all the more relevant today.  As Maureen Hinton, lead analyst at retail research agency Verdict Research, explains, “People have become more circumspect, the novelty of low prices has worn off and inflation means prices will rise. It all means shoppers will seek out more quality from their spend.”

According to Lorna Hall, Senior Retail Editor at international fashion trend website WGSN, “Shoppers ask themselves about value on all levels when they buy – will this piece last longer than others? How will it wash? How many times can I wear it? How versatile is this item? All these factors come into play at the time of the purchase and this process is definitely different today from how people shopped two years ago.”  Fuelled by this appetite for information, provenance has become one of the most crucial factors for fashion and textile manufacturers to embrace. The COTTON USA Mark is visible at retail level, enabling COTTON USA licensees - from big high street players to exclusive brands - to show customers the quality of U.S. cotton goods.

In this new retail era, consumers are examining what and how much they actually need to get by. Indulgent and impulsive spends are becoming a thing of the past, with today’s consumers showing an ongoing commitment to living with fewer but higher quality items. Quality cotton clothing is precisely what the COTTON USA Mark delivers.