How fashion retailers can beat the discounting culture

For our new white paper, published in association with Blue Yonder, Retail Week conducted exclusive global research and discovered four shopping insights related to pricing and discounts. Read the white paper here.

We discovered that old-fashioned promotional strategies and a continuous cycle of discounting have caused consumers to become accustomed to purchasing fashion products at low prices.

A quarter of customers interviewed (25%) now say they never buy clothes when they are full-price.

Consumers are willing to hunt for discounts too; in a given month, at least 85% of global consumers will search for the best prices to find discounts across online, the high street and catalogues.

Shoppers find Sales disappointing

Through the predictability of Sales, the retail industry has created its own monster: a consumer who both demands discounts and is yet disappointed by them, all at the same time.

A whopping 81% of global consumers are disappointed or very disappointed by their size not being available when Sale shopping. However, if a retailer’s range proposition was compelling enough at the start, these consumer buying strategies would change.

Discounting isn’t even the key driver for fashion purchases. Our research found that the leading motivation for consumers is simply shopping as and when they need products, applicable for 52% of global consumers.

“Through the predictability of Sales, the retail industry has created its own monster: a consumer who both demands discounts and is yet disappointed by them”

This bargain-hunting mind-set is not only damaging for profits but for brand equity, with consumers distrusting retailers who frequently discount and questioning the quality of their clothes.

Fashion’s new trading rules

Rather than continuing with the current discounting mind-set, fashion retailers need to have a better understanding of consumer expectations and behaviour, in order to keep pricing strategies in line with volatile customer demands.

Capitalising on the outputs of new technology, such as machine-learning solutions, will help to ensure retailers offer the right proposition, protecting both their profits and brand equity.