Shopping Trends for 2007

Intstitute friend Anita Campbell's Small Business Trends blog has an excellent article on shopping trends.  The article describes 5 shopping trends and is well worth reading.  Trend 2 is "Men Come Into Their Own as Shoppers".  As someone with 2 teenage boys who care way too much about their clothes, this quote really hit home for me:

“The surge in men’s apparel sales came from some of the most unexpected places, such as young men buying a suit. Teens and young adult men have finally ‘discovered the suit.’ When exploring that further, NPD found that young men never owned a suit, never wore a suit and never saw their father in a suit - yet, they have migrated towards dressing up to be ‘cool.’ We are seeing a shift in the younger generation reaching their image through grooming and dressing up,” said [NPD chief industry analyst, Marshal] Cohen.

The other trends described in the article are:  shopping as a force for a better world; celebrity wannabe shopping; social shopping; and the shopper as buyer and seller.