Over the last year, the fashion and apparel industry has taken some fascinating turns. Most of these developments were sparked by the pandemic and societal transformations that resulted from long-term consequences. Almost half of all B2B consumers are browsing for fashion and apparel products on the internet. As a result, online shopping in the fashion business is anticipated to grow to 27% by 2025, whereas the global fast fashion industry is forecasted to expand to $44 billion by 2028.
As a stakeholder of the industry, staying on top of current developments is essential. Stay tight, because we're going to break down some of the biggest fashion and apparel business trends that will blossom in 2022 in this post.
Let’s get started.
Shopping ads on social media
Social Media platforms are increasingly becoming the core hub for branded fashion content and effective user-generated marketing. It might be difficult to earn confidence in the fashion sector, but by resorting to influencers, fashion brands can receive endorsements from reputable product curators with large followings.
Not only that, Google and Instagram launched shoppable advertisements, making it very simple to stay on top of current trends.
In the month of May 2020, Facebook launched Facebook Shop, which adds more shopping functionality to the platform. Instagram has also implemented on-platform checkout, which allows users to order products directly from the social media network. This provides far more possibilities for small businesses to stay afloat during the Covid 19 crisis when brick-and-mortar stores saw fewer visitation.
Whatsapp also has it’s store on the application, making it such a handy user experience.
Genderless Clothing
The concept of gender and the "social standards" that surround it are changing. Men and women have been segregated in society for ages. Many societies, however, are dissolving the distinctions, and people are finally starting to wear clothing that they feel more comfortable in rather than what is assigned to them based on their gender.
This has prompted the development of increasingly gender-neutral apparel. Only a few brands are completely genderless at the moment, although many are introducing unisex "Basics" lines. Blindness, One DNA, and Muttonhead are some of the most popular genderless brands. Despite the fact that the majority of the fashion business is divided into "men's," "women's," "boy's," and "girl’s," unisex products allow people to avoid those labels if they wish.
Post-Covid boost in eCommerce fashion
During the Covid 19 crisis, it became evident that eCommerce is the only way of the future for shopping. The availability of textual and audio-visual evaluations online, the simplicity of ordering, and the potential of post-purchase behavior have all improved trust in online shopping in 2021.
The future of fashion sales channels is omnichannel, and it's very clear that online sales will be the future.
As a result of these factors, brands such as Zalando, Hugo Boss, and Inditex saw a significant boost in online store revenue during the Covid-19 crisis.
Rising Trend to Thrift Shopping
In the 1990s, thrift shopping was mostly linked with hipsters, and it was considered a viable choice that coincided with the increase in popularity of grunge bands such as Nirvana.
Most Instagram fashion influencers have incredible accounts where they promote garments from the world's most well-known thrift stores. Some people wear them because they think they're stylish, while others wear them because they care about environmental issues and long-term climate variability. Whatever the case may be, Millennials and Generation Z are among the age brackets who have welcomed the thrifting trend 2.5 times faster than Baby Boomers and Generation X.
You've probably heard that thrifting is healthy not only for your budget but also for the environment. Thrifting entails recycling, and you'll be much better to the environment if you lessen the amount of waste and pollution already present by providing clothes a second opportunity rather than digging them up. It's simple when you consider the amount of the carbon footprint created by your apparel, as well as the natural resources necessary to develop the fabric, manufacture the clothing, and ship it to its final destination.
To conclude, along with the above, add to that the advent of new technologies, keeping up with industry trends is a good idea if you want to continue expanding because you don't want to fall behind.