US Apparel and Beauty Spending Tracker: November 2021

The Coresight Research US Apparel and Beauty Spending Tracker provides a monthly update on the trajectory of consumer spending on beauty, clothing and footwear. The data presented in this report refer to consumer spending through any channels and so differ from retail sales data, which include product category sales by type of retailer. The data are sourced from the US Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). Clothing and Footwear Spending Update Consumer spending on clothing and footwear continued to grow at a rapid pace in November 2021. Consumers upped their spend by a very substantial 23.4% versus November 2020, accelerating even from October’s very strong 19.1% growth. Although the rate of growth remains down from August’s 25.9%, November’s growth reflects a very strong recovery in category spending, driven by consumers renewing their wardrobes as restrictions ease and they resume social activities. Apparel spending has recovered strongly, exceeding pre-pandemic levels from 2019 in every month so far in 2021. On a two-year basis, consumers grew their spending on apparel by a very substantial 21.9% in November 2021. Apparel spending growth averaged 17.8% between January and November 2021 on a two-year basis. Should that growth rate continue, we will see a 24.5% year-over-year increase in apparel spending in December 2021—reinforcing our expectation that apparel will be the biggest winner among major retail categories this holiday season.

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Figure 1. US Consumer Spending on Clothing and Footwear (YoY % Change) [caption id="attachment_138563" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Note: Expenditure data are seasonally adjusted
Source: BEA/Coresight Research[/caption]   Clothing and Footwear Spending by Subcategory We track four subcategories of clothing and footwear: footwear, children’s and infants’ clothing, men’s and boys’ clothing, and women’s and girls’ clothing. Spending on clothing overall saw a very strong year-over-year increase of 23.9% in November 2021, up from 20.1% in October. Figure 2 shows spending on clothing by category type. Category sales growth followed the same growth pattern as clothing overall, with a slight fall in February 2021 and a peak in April, followed by strong growth between May and November.

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Figure 2. US Consumer Spending on Clothing in 2021, by Category (YoY % Change) [wpdatatable id=1571]

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Source: BEA/Coresight Research

Figure 3. US Consumer Spending on Footwear in 2021 (YoY % Change) [wpdatatable id=1572]

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Source: BEA/Coresight Research

Beauty Spending Update Our tracker follows the US BEA definition of the beauty category, including bath products, cosmetics, nail products and tools, and perfumes. Consumers increased their spending on beauty by a very solid 13.0% year over year in November 2021, despite this being slightly lower than the 13.6% growth in October. Spending on beauty recovered quickly last year and has seen positive year-over-year growth since July 2020. On a two-year basis, category spending growth averaged 16.3% between January and November 2021. Should that growth rate continue, we will see a 15.4% year-over-year increase in beauty spending in December.

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Figure 4. US Consumer Spending on Selected Beauty Categories (YoY % Change) [caption id="attachment_138564" align="aligncenter" width="700"] The beauty category is defined as bath products, cosmetics, nail products and tools, and perfumes
Source: BEA/Coresight Research[/caption]