Retailers have been confronting the question of how millennials are changing the retail market as they gain more prominence and affluence. Millennials are the most fashion-conscious people who tend to treat how they dress and look very seriously. They are known to adhere with current trending fashions and change their mode of dressing in resonance with the dynamic world of fashion and design.
Fast Fashion
When relating style to millennials, one is lured into thinking about big and popular brand names. This is because this generation — which includes those born from the early 1980s to early 2000s — are fruitful and hardworking and prefer rewarding themselves with the high-end designer items. However, according to research, it has been discovered that millennials prefer fast fashion compared to brand clothing.
Fast fashion clothes are generally cheaper and very dynamic since they keep on changing over a short time — like weeks — unlike brand clothing that is known to have two calendar seasons per year. The rapid change in fast fashion proves to be lucrative to most retailers due to the high demand for this fast-moving stock.
Due to their preference of fast fashion, some people argue and claim that millennials have killed the world of fashion since they opt to go for cheaper produces as compared to the branded clothes.
Retail Evolution – How Millennials Are Changing the Retail Market Scene
Millennials have forced retailers to change their mode of branding and marketing. Compared to the classic or traditional shoppers, millennials are more informed on trending fashion and design thanks to their ability to access the internet. According to a survey carried out by The Intelligence Group, most shoppers between the ages of 18 to 34 years do their shopping online. This, therefore, means that the retailers are forced to have an online presence and at the same time stock trending wears at affordable prices.
With social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, millennials can create or to destroy the rapport of a retailer in a jiffy. This, therefore, prompts the retailers to be keen when pricing or providing product information to their customers.
The Selfie Generation
According to Econsultancy, millennials can also be referred to as the selfie generation. This means that they are more interested in their personal lives than what is going on in the world. Most millennials want to relate to themselves, in other words; they want to create their unique themes. Therefore, most of them do not prefer brands.
Clothing. Retailers are therefore forced to come up with an array of clothes that can be appealing to this Y generation. The Millennials higher craving for gratification as compared to their predecessors is one of the factors that is currently bringing a shift in the future of the retail landscape.
However, all is not lost for big brands; they can still win back the hearts of many millennials by changing some of their approaches. First and foremost, the big brands should consider revising their prices so that they can be pocket friendly. And secondly, the big brands should collaborate with fast fashion brands and produce inexpensive clothes. A good example is H&M’s collaboration with big brands such as Jimmy Choo, Versace, Stella McCartney, and Roberto Cavalli.