The kidswear push: How can brands stay ahead of the curve?

Key takeaways

• Girls’ and boys’ collections have reached relatively equal representation within leading mass-market brands’ assortments.
• Prices have increased significantly within the mass-market, with regard to kids’ clothing.
• Kids’ collections are growing and represent a larger share of leading brand assortments in 2022 compared to 2021.

As of 2022, the kidswear market is worth $263 billion with a predicted annual growth rate of nearly 3% until 2026[1] . The prominence in the market has also been present within luxury and premium brands, with brands such as Michael Kors[2]  and Reiss[3]  launching kids clothing collections, and luxury marketplaces like Farfetch investing significantly in childrenswear, thus expanding their total market reach.

This makes a brand wonder, is my kidswear assortment relevant? How can my brand get ahead in the kidswear sector? Dive into the latest Retviews report and see how your brand can stay ahead of the curve with a competitive intelligence platform.

Gen alpha apparel: are girls still prioritized?

The kidswear market is largely made up of today’s youngest consumers, Generation Alpha. Moving into a time of greater representation and empowerment, kidswear is also changing. Leading mass-market brands previously placed a greater emphasis on girls’ clothing[4] , which constituted a larger portion of their collections. Considering the changing industry, has the kids’ gender mix also evolved?

Retviews data indicates a shift toward greater gender equality in kids’ clothing. As of 2022, leading mass-market brands, such as ZARA Kids and Mango Kidswear have brought their girls and boys collections to equal assortment shares. Uniqlo has also changed but still has a slightly larger share of girl’s pieces.

Price inflation on kids’ apparel: what’s going on?

The question of price inflation has hit countless industries, and fashion is no exception. Within the fashion industry, menswear and womenswear have experienced a significant price increase between 2021 and 2022, in both mass-market and premium brands[1] , but where does the kidswear market stand? How should brands be approaching pricing strategies for kids clothing?

Retviews’ data shows that the kidswear market has been hit by strong price increases in first-quarter 2022 within the European market, with average prices rising across leading mass-market brands year-on-year. Gap Kidswear, ZARA, Mango and Uniqlo have all increased their prices. Uniqlo showed the biggest price increase with a 14%, average increase in its overall kidswear assortment. Is your brand keeping up with the price increase? Are you opting for the best pricing strategy?

Fashion brands and retailers are using AI-powered retail data to monitor competitors with Retviews, keeping a close eye on their strategies, allowing them to best position their brand within the changing industry, whilst maintaining sales volumes.

Kids’ clothing has seen a boost in recent years, and even more so in 2022, as leading mass-market brands such as Zara and Uniqlo are expanding their childrenswear assortment. The mass-market is also increasing its share of kids’ collection assortments, compared to 2021.

Where does your brand stand? Get a real-time view of how your assortment compares to your competitors’ and how you can adjust your collections to stay ahead of the curve with Retviews.

Stay ahead with a competitive intelligence software

Your brand can also gain access to accurate, real-time data to stay competitive in the market, monitor your competitors’ strategies and optimize margins with Retviews, the competitive intelligence tool for fashion brands and retailers. Never fall behind the competition again and say goodbye to time-consuming manual benchmarking.