Industry overview
What is shaping fashion
Fashion and apparel brands need to read trends early, get fit and size right and turn browsing into buying across stores and e-commerce.
- Trends travel quickly through social media
- Fit and size issues drive returns
- Online shoppers need confidence before buying
Client background
A kidswear brand, working in Australia & New Zealand. Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.
- Organisation
- A kidswear brand
- Sector
- Fashion
- Team engaged
- Market Research
- Services
- Consumer panel, Quantitative research, Qualitative research
Client challenge
The kidswear brand was losing share to fast-fashion retailers and wanted to understand what parents in Australia and New Zealand really valued when buying children’s clothes.
Research objectives
- Deliver on the brief: understanding parents buying children’s clothing.
- Understand the views, needs and behaviour of parents.
- Measure how widespread each pattern is, and explain the reasons behind it.
- Give the client evidence it can act on within 6 weeks.
Target audience
The work focused on 1,500 parents.
- parents1,500
Audiences we typically reach in fashion
Fashion shoppersOnline buyersStore staffStylists and influencersWholesale buyers
Geographic coverage
Coverage: Australia & New Zealand. Markets: Australia and New Zealand.
- Australia
- New Zealand
Research methodology
A mixed-method design: structured research measured how widespread each pattern was, and qualitative conversations explained why.
- 1Brief
- 2Parent survey
- 3Group discussions
- 4Insight
We surveyed parents of children up to twelve years old about purchase frequency, priorities, sustainability and price, and held group discussions to explore frustrations such as durability and sizing. The survey included quotas by child age and household income, and parents shared photos of clothes that had worn out quickly.
Consumer panelQuantitative researchQualitative research
Sampling strategy
- parents
- 1,500
- Online respondents were drawn from verified panel members who matched the screening criteria, with quotas on key profile attributes.
- Qualitative participants were recruited purposively to cover the full range of experiences that mattered, rather than for statistical representation.
Data collection
- The online survey was mobile-friendly and offered in respondents' languages.
- Interviews and discussions were led by experienced moderators using a guide agreed with the client.
Data quality & validation
- Digital fingerprinting and duplicate checks
- Attention, speed and straight-lining checks
- Review of open-ended answers
- Recordings and transcripts for every session
- Re-screening of qualitative recruits
- Logic and range checks on the final data
- Work carried out under our ISO 20252 quality procedures
Data analysis
- Cross-tabulation by key groups and locations
- Significance testing on the differences that mattered
- Thematic coding of interviews and discussions
- Journey and decision mapping
Key findings
- Durability, comfort and easy washing mattered more than trends.
Parents valued practicality over fashion when buying for children.
Recommendations
- The brand highlighted fabric quality and introduced a durability guarantee, which parents responded to strongly.
- Share the findings with the teams closest to customers so they can act quickly.
What we recommended, and the client put into practice
Business impact
- Repeat purchases increased among parents who registered for the guarantee.
Deliverables & next steps
- Insight report and management presentation
- Cleaned data file and data tables
- Interview summaries and key verbatims
- Repeat the measure after changes are in place to track progress.
- A natural follow-on question: which trends will customers buy?
Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.