How Your Shopping Habits Influence What Designers Make

Most shoppers know that retailers are watching their every move: what they’re searching on store websites, what they’ve bought in the past, and how much money they’re willing to spend. But clothing companies don’t just want to know how they can sell you something their designers have dreamed up; they want to know exactly what you’re looking for and then design it. In a marked shift from how trends and clothing reached shoppers in the past few decades, retailers are now using shopper data to decide how to design clothes, which sizes to provide, and how frequently they should be restocking. And, thanks to the ever-growing impact of social media and online shopping, data collection is happening everywhere, from upstart clothing brands to mall anchor stores, both online and in-person. Why? It’s all because shoppers want what they want when they want it — now. “If you don’t give consumers what they want, they’ll go somewhere else,” Marshal Cohen, chief retail analyst at analytics firm NPD Group, told Yahoo Style. “The sphere of influence has shifted. We’re no longer looking at stores or the designers as a point of entry to what’s important; we’re looking at what influencers are telling us or what trends are showing us.” Read more at Yahoo Style.