Abstract
Why buy this report
- Get insight into trends in market performance
- Pinpoint growth sectors and identify factors driving change
- Identify market and brand leaders and understand the competitive
environment
Executive summary
Clothing and footwear market contracted in 2008
The year 2008 was a bad one for the clothing and footwear market, with retail
sales falling drastically on account of worsening economic conditions,
resulting in job cuts and wage reductions, all of which reduced the disposable
incomes available to consumers as well as making them more cautious in their
spending. The clothing and footwear market contracted significantly in 2008
compared to 2007, and this was the first time over the review period that
negative growth was recorded in both volume and value terms.
Deteriorating economic conditions lead to slash retail spending
The rapidly deteriorating economic conditions resulted in massive job cuts and
lay-offs and significantly hurt consumers' confidence, and they responded by
drastically reducing their spending on non-essential purchases. Nearly half of
consumers polled indicated that clothing and footwear was a market in which
they would look to cut down on spending, which exacerbated an already gloomy
environment for the clothing and footwear retail sector.
Women' s shirts/blouses and lingerie the best performers
The fastest-growing subsectors over the review period were women' s tops, and
underwear and nightwear. High growth in these sectors was not surprising,
since women' s outerwear significantly outsells men' s outerwear in the clothing
market, and women' s tops form the largest component by value of the women' s
outerwear segment. For underwear and nightwear, the rising popularity of
premium lingerie for women has been the main driver of growth, and many labels
appeared almost overnight on the Singapore market that offered increasingly
luxurious intimate garments for women.
Retail scene dominated by fashion distributors and conglomerates
Major players such as F J Benjamin, Wing Tai, Royal Sporting House and Club 21
dominate the retail scene in Singapore, and each of them holds exclusive
distribution and retail rights to dozens of internationally renowned and
popular fashion labels and brands from across the globe. These players
typically open specialist boutiques or retail outlets for each specific
fashion label or brand name in their stable, and these outlets account for a
majority of sales in the Singapore clothing and footwear market.
Future forecast growth projected to be slower
The clothing and footwear market is expected to grow at a lower rate over the
forecast period than during the historic review period, thanks to the
declining economy, which is not expected to recover until 2010 or 2011 -- or
even later. This is expected to significantly dampen sales until then,
although retail sales are expected to bounce back once the economy gets back
on track and starts to grow again.
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