August 2024
Consumer apparel: Trading down is the new dressing up
Rising costs and a preference for experiences has younger and lower-income consumers seeking value on the clothing rack.
Key takeaways
- Bank of America internal card data suggests that discount retail spending per household has been growing faster than overall retail spending since July 2022. We find that consumers trading down to value apparel in the face of high inflation has been an important contributor to this trend.
- Bank of America internal card data also suggests that the market share for value apparel has increased nearly four percentage points for Gen Z and Millennials in the last year, as they balance the rising costs of necessities and increased spending on experiences, leaving less room in their budgets for discretionary goods.
- Notably, the increase in value apparel's market share has been more pronounced for lower- and middle-income consumers, up over ten percent from July 2019 to July 2024, more than twice the rate of growth for higher-income customers.
Read our full analysis for a more in-depth look at these trends.
