Exploring U.S. retailers' merchandising strategies for adaptive clothing: a big data analysis

Abstract

With society’s increasing call for a more inclusive fashion industry, adaptive clothing, specifically designed for people with disabilities (PWD), has rapidly emerged as a critical and high-potential product category for U.S. retailers. By analyzing thousands of clothing items for sale in the U.S. retail market from 2018 to 2022 at the Stock Keeping Unit level, this study examined U.S. retailers’ merchandising strategies for adaptive clothing. The logistic regression revealed that statistically, adaptive clothing in the U.S. retail market looked more ‘boring’ or plain, and exhibited lower availability in several categories, including dresses, outerwear & suits, and underwear. Also, compared with nonadaptive clothing, adaptive clothing was statistically more likely to be priced higher than the market average. The findings generated critical new knowledge about the business aspect of adaptive clothing by adding a valuable retailers’ perspective. The results also call for efforts to make adaptive clothing more diverse in product categories and financially affordable to PWD consumers. ☐ Keywords: Adaptive clothing, People with Disabilities (PWD), Merchandising strategies, Product Assortment