The children’s clothes industry has experienced remarkable growth the last 5-10 years. The explanation can be found in an more important need to promote ourselves.
2010-08-18 – www.easy2bid.com
The Good Old Days
In “the good old days” dressing children was a practical matter. The clothes had to meet certain demands such as being sufficiently warm and comfortable. I myself wore track suits until I was 10 years old, only then did I get my first pair of jeans. I was perfectly happy, probably because my friends wore the same kind. Today however, this has changed drastically. At Christmas, Children of 8-9 years are handing over wish lists containing only popular brand names like Dolche & Gabanna or Gucci. It is the name that is important, even for small children.
The parents
Obviously the children are learning this behavior from someone, namely their parents. Today it is very important for most people to signal to their surroundings that they are successful. Children are an important part of the identity of most parents, and therefore the appearance of the children has become a crucial part of signaling your own success. There is much focus on having children and being parents. You can gain a lot of status by having the perfect family and having the perfect family includes having perfect children. This probably goes a long way in explaining why the accessories for children have become so important. If your children look successful, you look successful. If our children look neglected it is hard for us to appear successful in the eyes of our surroundings.
The Future
It seems likely parents will continue spending large amounts of money dressing their children to make them into symbols of their own success. Already today it is obvious that much of the clothes for children are being purchased online. This requires certain skills and tools to be applied. Tools like ‘search engine optimization’ and ‘Google Analytics’ will be ever more important in promoting one’s commodities. Like so many products today, many children clothing such as sweater, are being produced in China by Chinese manufacturers and supplied by Chinese suppliers. The competition is fierce because the market already seems saturated. The strategy for producers must be to produce cost efficiently but still produce high quality. This is true of many products, but especially so in an industry where completion is as fierce as in that of children’s clothing. Manufacturers must target their marketing efforts and trace the effect of every new effort. The buyers must ensure a varied collection of goods that stand out from that of others’. At the same time however they can not rely solely on unknown brands seeing that generating traffic is an important factor. Thus, the key to success in the children’s clothes industry will be low cost production, high quality, branding, and understanding the tools of the internet.