Fashionistas Fuel Fashion Foray

Fashion Forwards are a powerful consumer demographic, according to the latest Retail Consumer Dynamics study by Acxiom. Defined as consumers looking for the newest trends and styles, Fashion Forwards spend more on apparel and are setting their sights on increasing the amount they spend on other categories, too.

Specifically, Fashion Forward women, regardless of income, spend 1.7 times as much on apparel as Conservative/Traditional women and 2.7 times as much as Value Driven female shoppers. Though Fashion Forward women are a smaller group than Value Driven and Conservative/Traditional types, they indicate an intention to spend twice as much in the future on categories like electronics, home furnishings and health and beauty aids.

While those indicators are reason enough for retailers to focus attention on this group, another survey suggests that they’ll need to save some marketing dollars for another group of shoppers – women with annual incomes of more than $75,000. According to a May survey of 4,000 women conducted by Prosper for Kurt Salmon Associates, wealthier women increased their year-over-year intent to spend by 10 percent – twice the rate for less-wealthy women.

Wealthier women’s economic confidence rose from 20 percent to 31 percent year-over-year, and they consider themselves less focused on sales and promotions. The percent of wealthier women who will only buy clothing on sale is 23 percent, compared with 29 percent of less wealthy women.