MMGNET’s newly launched 2024 Consumer Outlook Report captures the most salient shopping insights, consumer motivations and behaviors — from mass market to luxury — as well as expert commentary on predicted consumer interests. Additionally and offering more forward-looking context, is MMGNET’s SS25 Market Shifts Guide, which explores larger macro market shifts — such as Human Connection or Eco Curious — and what they mean for Spring/Summer 2025 trends across mens and womens apparel, footwear and accessories.
Fashion trends are shifting faster than ever, but they’re no longer pushed top-down from legacy institutions. Consumers increasingly influence what bubbles up, and fashion professionals — be they a brand, retailer, designer or marketer — must pay attention to how current shopper sentiment influences and shapes upcoming designs and trends.
Providing a new resource for the industry that not only produces ongoing trend forecasting, MMGNET — the new parent brand as part of MMGNET Group (formerly Informa Markets Fashion and producers of fashion wholesale events MAGIC, PROJECT, SOURCING at MAGIC and COTERIE) — also develops exclusive market insights and business resources designed to support the wider fashion industry and connect the group’s portfolio of brands. MMGNET will deliver an expanded product and service offering, including a steady stream of rich and inspirational content and resources as well as more opportunities for the wider industry to connect and innovate throughout the year.
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As part of this, MMGNET recently launched its 2024 Consumer Outlook Report, which analyzes how mass market, mid-market, luxury and secondhand consumers will shop in 2024, and what this means for retailers and brands.
Despite an uncertain retail climate, consumers are still spending, albeit more strategically. According to the Outlook Report, 76 percent of U.S. consumers say they “plan to spend as much or more” on fashion in 2024 compared to 2023, with the 18-34 demographic the most eager to spend. Categories for growth include beauty, apparel, home and footwear, and a desire for health and wellness will likely push brands to emphasize performance, from dermo-cosmetic skincare to technical and novel innovations in fashion.
The 2024 Insights report notes that consumers are indicating a preference to shop in store, and while online sales have increased this year, in-store shopping will still remain the dominant sales channel. This current consumer behavior points to an ongoing cultural shift where we are desiring more human connections, “a craving for community and real-time experiences,” as identified in the Market Shifts Guide. As retailers will be seeking to tactically “raise prices” rather than “push volume,” such emotional shopping connections and experiences are necessary to provide the value consumers demand.
As a direct result of this, trends for Spring/Summer 2025 will see more “fluid shapes invoking sensuality” or “product assortments that home in on perfecting craftsmanship.”
In-store shopping not only provides tactile connections to fabrics and entertainment to Gen Z and millennials seeking a digital break, it also provides solutions to the 63 percent of consumers who said “size and fit” was their most important product-purchasing consideration.
In 2024, style blending like mixing suiting and tailoring with casualwear pieces will likely continue and evolve. Just look at how pandemic work-from-home dressing still upends today’s workwear with casual style mashups. According to the report, “everyday sneakers” topped intended 2024 footwear purchases at 68 percent, with “performance sneakers” reflecting a surge in demand for performance-wear brands for both exercise and everyday wear. Unisex and universal jeans remain the number one intended bottom purchase in 2024, while leather speaks to the “casualization of the wardrobe.”
Consumers, particularly younger ones, are defying gender, age, seasons and even trends when dressing, with many satisfying trend-agnostic and value-driven cravings with secondhand shopping. In fact, Gen Z has completely removed the stigma of thrift shopping. For SS25, brands that focus on upcycled pieces from earlier collections (such as Coachtopia) or mix-and-match modular elements (Marfa Stance) will entice with their originality.
Also, within these shifts as indicated in the Market Shifts Guide — heritage will speak to consumers as they “seek symbols reflective of their unique journey” while foreseeing “an accelerated shift towards decentralization” that will also influence preferred trend aesthetics for SS25.
Need, value and quality continue to be key drivers of current purchasing behavior, and the Consumer Outlook report found consumers primarily shop when they need a functional replacement (47 percent) or when they see major sales or discounts (41 percent). A brand’s “value for money” remains its most important attribute, a fact that will challenge brands for the SS25 season to satisfy the eco-curious consumer’s need for sustainable initiatives while still delivering quality that is justified by the price.
To satisfy the Eco-Curious consumer, fashion brands are adopting technology to explore and help provide solutions to offset fashion’s contribution, be it with regenerative, bio-based or alt materials. As a result, predicted trends in SS25, as identified in the Markets Shifts Guide, will “redefine traditional craftsmanship through an eco-conscious lens,” plus “explore AI’s potential impact on environmental sustainability.”
Used together, the 2024 Consumer Outlook Report and SS25 Market Shifts Guide provide useful insights for the industry to understand consumer behavior and react accordingly.
To discover more insights on consumer behavior for 2024, download The Consumer Outlook Report.
To learn more about SS25 trends and the market shifts shaping upcoming trends, download the free guide and register for the upcoming SS25 Women’s and Men’s Trend session, happening on June 13 and 20.