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High End Women's Dress Shirts - US Market Size
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The estimated market size for US Women’s Luxury Shirts was $12.5 B in 2017. Women are the biggest spenders on clothing each year, spending 76% more than men on average, with older women spending the most on clothing annually. Interesting, on average, women pay 8% more for their clothing than men do. The global Luxury Apparel Market has been slowly growing over the last few years, though “affordable luxury” has grown at nearly three times the pace. The online market for luxury women’s clothing has grown exponentially in the last two years and is expected to continue to see significant growth in the coming years. However, luxury shoppers are less likely to buy items that need to be tried on via websites, and still spend the most in brick-and-mortar stores.
Read on for my findings and the triangulation of my calculations for the requested market size. As requested, I used the framework created by the original Analyst to answer this related query. Additionally, I’ve included related information I thought you might find useful to your own research.
FINDINGS AND TRIANGULATION
According to data from Statista, the US Women’s and Girls’ Apparel Market is estimated to be valued at $121 B in 2018, with an expected CAGR (2018 – 2012) of 2.3%. The 2017 market value was $117.8 B, which is the figure we will use for our calculations. The US is the largest player in this global market. Of this market, “blouses” (into which luxury shirts fall, though this category includes other types of shirts, as well) showed revenue of $13.6 B in 2017, and is expected to show revenue of $14.2 B in 2018. The 2017 average per capita revenue for blouses was $41.88, with volume sales of 680.8 M pieces. The average volume per capita was 2.1 pieces, with an average price per unit of $20.03.
It is important to note that the blouses segment does not include jerseys (like t-shirts), sweatshirts, or pullovers, but only those shirts that are considered “dressier”. However, this does not mean that this category includes only high-end wearables. So, we’ll need to drill down a bit further to get a more-accurate market niche estimate. Beginning with 2017’s total US blouses market size of $13.6 B, we can calculate the more-specific market (high-end shirts) that you’re seeking.
To do this, we’ll look at the global Luxury Apparel Market, which BusinessWire reports was worth $77.8 B in 2017, showing a 3.3% YOY growth. BizVibe reports that, in 2015, the United States’ share of that market was 29.15%. If we assume that this percentage remained fairly static over the next two years, we can estimate the approximate size of the US Luxury Apparel Market to be just under $22.7 B in 2017.
29.15% of $77.8 B = $22.7 B
From here, we need to segment out just US women’s luxury apparel. Multiple sources (including BusinessWire and BizVibe) report that women represent more than half of the market share. Since I was not able to locate a source that indicated the exact percentages (of men’s vs women’s), we will use 55% as our figure (as that is just over half). Please note that with this estimation, the market size may vary (up or down) by some percentage, though it should not be very significant. Using that 55%, we can calculate that the US Women’s Luxury Apparel Market was valued at approximately $12.5 B in 2017.
55% of $22.7 B = $12.5 B
So, of the total Women’s and Girls Blouses Market of $13.6 B, approximately $12.5 B of that goes toward high-end shirts/blouses (wow!).
CreditDonkey informs us that women are the biggest spenders on clothing in the US, spending more than 76% over what men spend on clothing each year, and averaging a clothing expenditure of around $571 each year. Older women (aged 45 – 54) tend to spend higher than the average, buying just under $800 ($793) in clothing annually. This is likely due to larger discretionary spending funds available. Wealthier women spend even more, which is of definite interest to you for your research into the luxury clothing / shirts markets. Interestingly, their research also notes that, “on average, women pay 8% more than men for their clothing,” with the most difference being seen in the cost of shirts.
GROWTH OF THE (WOMEN’S) LUXURY APPAREL MARKET
BusinessWire notes that, “The global luxury apparel market has had one of the most prominent growths in recent decades among all of the sectors in global textile and apparel industry.” McKinsey’s 2017 State of Fashion report notes that the luxury fashion segment has grown by 0.5 – 2.5% over the past few years, with “affordable luxury” showing about three times that growth. According to PRNewswire, “women dominate the luxury apparels market; however, the men are not far behind”. Both segments accounted for nearly equal market shares in the 2015 global Luxury Apparel Market.
LuxurySociety states that local fashion brands, like Ralph Lauren, Coach, Calvin Klein, Gucci, and Michael Kors, dominate the American luxury clothing market. Though Deloitte notes that in recent years, the top US-based companies have shown decreases in overall sales.
For a detailed look at the global (and US) luxury markets and the consumers who purchase luxury products (including high-end clothing), Deloitte provides a comprehensive overview. For a collection of useful stats on the purchasing power of US women, check out this article from GirlPowerMarketing.
OPPORTUNITIES IN ONLINE WOMEN’S LUXURY FASHION
On a related note, McKinsey reports that, in the US, the online market for women’s luxury fashion is expected to grow from 2015’s 3% of the market share to nearly 17% in 2018 (equaling growth to $12 million dollars). Brands that have realized that both brick-and-mortar and online sales are equally viable in the luxury apparel market are most likely to see more success in future years. According to McKinsey, “Brands have come to accept that these channels are not mutually exclusive, since they target different shopping occasions and therefore different consumer groups. Multi-brand sites, however, are expected to capture a greater portion of the growth in online luxury fashion, as single-brand sites have more limited growth potential.” They also note that it is very important for a brand to discern exactly what their luxury shoppers are looking for in their online retail experiences – and provide them with the experiences they desire.
Though they report that luxury apparel buyers are more willing to buy something online that no one else (online) sells, they are also less likely to purchase items that need to be tried on for a perfect fit (like shirts). McKinsey also notes that, “In the U.S., department stores dominate in the online luxury fashion market, as these players continue to expand their offline strengths into online.” In the US, Nordstrom leads in online luxury fashion sales, followed by Neiman Marcus and Bloomingdales respectively. For more information, check out McKinsey’s report.
Additionally, IBISWorld notes that the online sales of designer clothing have “grown furiously for more than a decade, and that the market will continue to expand through 2021 and beyond.
SUMMARY
The US market size for high-end (luxury) women’s shirts was approximately $12.5 B in 2017. The market for luxury clothing in the US is growing, although slowly, with men’s high-end fashions showing higher growth rates than women’s.