• Year-over-year clothing and footwear consumer spending growth slowed to 1.7% in May 2023, down from April’s revised 2.6% growth and March’s revised 2.5% growth, mainly due to softened consumer demand. We expect consumers’ pent-up demand to fully fade away in 2023 and inflation to taper down further.
• As we move into peak summer months ahead of the new school year, we expect clothing and footwear spending to grow by a low-single-digit rate.
• Overall, spending on clothing saw a year-over-year increase of 2.0% in May 2023, lower than the revised 2.7% growth seen in both April and March. Men’s and boys’ clothing spending continued to outperform in May 2023, seeing year-over-year growth of 2.8%. Meanwhile, spending on footwear grew 0.5% in May 2023 versus revised growth of 2.3% in April and 1.6% in March.
• Consumer spending on beauty increased by 5.7% year over year in May 2023 versus 6.7% growth in April and 6.4% growth in March. Although spending growth slowed, it remained strong compared to pre-pandemic levels (low- to mid-single-digit growth), reflecting beauty’s position as a low-cost, feel-good category that can withstand economic slowdowns.

The Coresight Research US Apparel and Beauty Spending Tracker provides a monthly update on the trajectory of consumer spending on beauty, clothing and footwear. Our latest report covers spending from May 2023, showing that clothing and footwear spending increased by 1.7% year over year.

Data in this report include:

• Year-over-year changes in US consumer spending on clothing and footwear overall, and breakdowns by category, May 2022–May 2023
• Year-over-year changes in US consumer spending on selected beauty categories, May 2022–May 2023                      

Other relevant research:

• The previous US Apparel and Beauty Spending Tracker with April 2023 data
• The Coresight Research monthly reports collection
• Coresight Research coverage of the apparel and footwear market