Children’s Market Study: Games, Toys, Clothing

The children’s ready-to-wear market has several unique aspects. It is constantly in motion and heavily influenced by sales seasonality. Let’s see how the children’s fashion market is evolving, the annual highlights in this sector, and the strategies adopted by various players to gain market share.

Evolution of market shares in clothing sales

The health crisis has permanently altered consumption habits in France, favoring planned purchases over impulsive ones.

Between 2019 and 2022, the clothing market saw a decrease of nearly 2 percentage points for the women’s category and 0.6 points for the men’s category. In contrast, the children’s category is the only one that recorded an increase: +0.2 points over these three years.

Children’s Clothing and Second Hand

For economic or ecological reasons, the choice of second-hand clothing is a natural one when it comes to children’s clothing: they grow quickly, and their clothes are worn for only a short time. Buying second-hand aligns with the need for frequent product renewal.

Brands have seized the opportunity:

• Petit Bateau offers second-hand products directly on its website, as well as a clothing rental service. This format aligns with the market typology since children’s clothing is often worn for only a few months.
• Vertbaudet launched (re)Vertbaudet, its own second-hand platform, and the brand has also entered the marketplace, where it offers complementary products to its range.

Seasonal Sales Trends

The back-to-school season is the time of year when children’s clothing sales take off: it’s the peak of the year, both in physical stores and e-commerce.

How do retailers respond? They offer “Back-to-School Special Collections.” On some websites, there are even filters like “Preschool Back-to-School” and “Elementary School Back-to-School.”

➡️ Read the full article on the children’s fashion market.