WGSN, the leading consumer trend forecaster, announces the launch of WGSN Fashion Buying, a dedicated data-driven platform that will support buyers and help them understand product direction, the key trends to back next, and how deeply to invest in specific styles. The platform will deliver future-proof trend decision intelligence and buying-specific forecasts exactly when needed, organised according to the development cycle and customised to category. At launch, WGSN Fashion Buying will support buyers across multiple fashion categories, including: Dresses, Cut & Sew, Woven Tops, Denim, Outerwear, Trousers & Shorts, Skirts, Accessories, and Footwear.

The Fashion Buying platform combines WGSN’s expertise in trend forecasting and the use of WGSN’s proprietary TrendCurve AI predictive analytics to deliver unprecedented accuracy in seasonal buying decisions. The platform will unite pre-planning, development, and in-season hindsight phases to ensure accuracy and efficiency in both planning and production. Paired with these phases is Director’s Intelligence, a curated area of WGSN Fashion Buying aimed at providing team leaders with strategic content, equipping them to manage their total division.

WGSN Fashion Buying features brand-new forecasts, including: 

• Trend Narratives
• TrendCurve AI Colour
• TrendCurve AI Materials & Details
• TikTok Trading

These latest WGSN Fashion Buying forecasts sit alongside established WGSN Fashion design reports. The forecasts work together across development cycles to enable buyers to optimise seasonal planning and de-risk decision-making.

WGSN Fashion Buying brand new forecasts:

• Trend Narratives: These WGSN reports offer a mix of looks, key items, and colours that help retailers outline seasonal stories and concepts to build out a phasing calendar. 
• TrendCurve AI Colour: A data-backed assessment of colour, these WGSN reports serve as a historical confirmation on colour and provide WGSN’s 2-year-out colour projection to inform product decisions.
• TrendCurve AI Materials & Details: A data-backed assessment of materials & details, these WGSN reports identify a detail and its use within a specific category, providing its forecast and outlook across Innovator, Mass, and Conservative retail segments.
• TikTok Trading: These WGSN reports identify opportunities for remerchandising existing ranges to optimise sales around top emerging and evolving TikTok trends linked to current seasonal trading.
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Francesca Muston, Vice President of Fashion commented: “WGSN has used big data to rewrite the rulebook on how trends are forecasted. The Fashion Buying innovation will supercharge the platform with a data-driven solution with never-before-seen efficiencies that impact the bottom line for the retailers.”

WGSN Fashion Buying can simplify the buying process. According to recent WGSN & OC&C research, shifting to a planning and buying model based on demand and data can decrease overproduction by 5-15%, removing one of the primary sources of unnecessary waste.

On the benefit to retailers, Monisha Klar, Director of Fashion added, “Buyers have been so reliant on their own internal data. But since you don’t have data on items you haven’t sold, there’s also a big element of Buyers making gut-instinct decisions, that may or may not pan out. I think WGSN is uniquely positioned to provide Buyers with the confidence and validation they need to back trends from the quantitative side, while also giving them the creative and commercial execution they’ll need all the way through the product-to-market lifecycle.”

Full forecasts included in WGSN Fashion Buying:

• Pre-Planning: Trend Narratives, Buyers’ Briefings (Materials & Details, Prints & Graphics and Colour), Fashion Intelligence, Big Ideas, Key Trends, Youth Drivers, Catwalk Analytics and Category Details.
• Development: TrendCurve AI Category, Item, Detail and Colour Outlooks, Core Items, Key Items Fashion, Catwalk Key items, Trade Shows, Key Icons, Key Prints & Graphics, Licensing and Catwalk Analytics: Chase Strategies.
• In-season Hindsight: Retail Analysis, Brands to Watch, TikTok Trading, Buyers’ Debriefs, Category Details, Item Outlooks and Press Previews.