Life cycle of fashion apparel products

The price and demand for an individual fashion product are largely time-dependent. With the greatest demand, the largest margin will occur at the beginning of the product’s life, or a certain season. Then since consumers’ needs are satisfied and new fashion trends come, the margin will decrease rapidly by price discounts. For example, a seasonal garment for the holiday season or bathing suit for summer might sell at full price for two weeks or even less, a 30-40% markdown or zero margin for another two weeks, and then have to be sold to another channel for 10% of the original price at a large loss.

Short life-cycles – the product is often ephemeral, designed to capture the mood of the moment: consequently, the period in which it will be saleable is likely to be very short and seasonal, measured in months or even weeks.

2. High volatility – demand for these products is rarely stable or linear. It may be influenced by the vagaries of weather, films, or even by pop stars and footballers.

3. Low predictability – because of the volatility of demand it is extremely difficult to forecast with any accuracy even total demand within a period, let alone week-by-week or item-by-item demand.

4. High impulse purchasing – many buying decisions by consumers for these products are made at the point of purchase. In other words, the shopper when confronted with the product is stimulated to buy it, hence the critical need for ‘availability’.