In the ever-evolving world of fashion retail, forecasting trends is a vital tool for staying relevant and making profit. Consumer tastes shift quickly, influenced by everything from runway shows and celebrity culture to social media and global events. By accurately predicting what styles, colours, fabrics and silhouettes will be in demand, store owners can stock products that align with customer expectations and seasonal shifts. This not only enhances the shopping experience but also helps reduce the risk of unsold inventory and missed opportunities. Trend forecasting empowers retailers to plan ahead, curate collections with confidence, and position their store as a trusted source for fresh, on-trend fashion, giving them a critical edge in a competitive marketplace.
Engage With The Industry
Keeping Up With Fashion Weeks
Keeping up to date with Fashion Weeks is essential for fashion retailers aiming to stay ahead of emerging trends and meet customer expectations. Fashion weeks in cities like Paris, Milan, London, and New York showcase upcoming styles, colours and shapes that often influence consumer preferences in the following seasons. For instance, Milan Fashion Week has highlighted a shift toward bold, eye-catching designs, signalling a move away from the “quiet luxury” trend and indicating a demand for more expressive fashion choices. By monitoring these events, retailers can anticipate which trends will resonate with their target audience and adjust their inventory accordingly. Additionally, platforms like Fashion Week Online provide accessible coverage of these events, offering insights into the latest collections and designer showcases. Engaging with Fashion Weeks, whether by attending in person or following through reputable sources, enables retailers to make informed decisions, ensuring their offerings align with the evolving fashion landscape.
Social Media Trends
Keeping a close eye on what’s trending across social media platforms is another effective way to forecast fashion trends for your store. Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest are powerful indicators of shifting consumer tastes, often revealing what’s gaining traction well before it appears on runways or in fashion publications. Viral styles, like matching co-ord sets, oversized blazers, or Y2K-inspired pieces, can emerge from a single post or an influencer’s outfit video, and within days, become must-have looks for your target audience. Monitoring hashtags, influencer content, and trend-driven pages allows retailers to quickly identify patterns in colours, cuts, and aesthetics that are resonating with followers.
In our blog, Understanding How Social Media Influences Fashion, we explore how these platforms not only reflect but also shape demand. Social media has democratised trendsetting, giving everyday users the power to influence buying behaviour on a massive scale. By aligning your product selection with the trends gaining momentum online, you can stock the pieces your customers are already searching for, ensuring your store stays relevant, responsive and fashion-forward.
Researching Forecasting Agencies
Researching trend forecasting agencies like WGSN can be a game-changer, ensuring your store stays ahead of your competitors. WGSN is a global leader in trend forecasting, offering detailed insights into emerging styles, colours, fabrics and consumer behaviour. Their comprehensive reports analyse everything from runway shows to street style, combining this with data analytics to predict the next big trends. For store owners, this means having access to reliable, long-term forecasts that can shape buying decisions, merchandising strategies, and product development. WGSN’s tailored fashion reports are designed to align with specific markets, helping retailers understand what products will resonate with their target audience in upcoming seasons.
By using WGSN’s tools, retailers can better anticipate customer preferences, reduce overstock by predicting demand more accurately, and curate collections that are in sync with future trends, ultimately improving sales and positioning their store as a trend-conscious, forward-thinking brand. Sources like WGSN highlight how these forecasts go beyond just knowing what’s coming, they give retailers the actionable insights needed to stay competitive in a fast-paced fashion market.
Attending Trade Shows
Attending fashion trade shows is a valuable strategy for forecasting trends and sourcing collections that resonate with your customers! These events serve as dynamic platforms where retailers can observe emerging styles, connect with industry professionals, and gain firsthand insights into upcoming fashion movements. For instance, here at Nova of London, we regularly showcase our latest collections at these fairs, offering attendees an exclusive preview of forthcoming designs. At Spring Fair 2025, held at the NEC Birmingham, we unveiled our Spring/Summer 2025 collection and will soon be attending Autumn Fair 2025.
By engaging directly with these collections, retailers can make informed decisions about which trends to incorporate into their stores, ensuring they align with consumer preferences and seasonal demands. Moreover, these trade shows facilitate networking opportunities with designers and suppliers, providing a deeper understanding of the inspirations and market insights driving new trends. Participating in such events enables retailers to stay ahead in the competitive fashion landscape by curating offerings that are both timely and appealing to their target audience.
Analyse Your Data
Tracking Sales & Bestsellers
Tracking sales and identifying your store’s bestsellers is one of the most practical and reliable ways to forecast future fashion trends. Your sales data holds valuable insights into what your customers are buying, when they’re buying it, and how often. By analysing which products consistently perform well, whether it’s specific styles, colours, fabrics or price points, you can begin to identify patterns that inform future buying decisions. For example, if floral print trousers have been top sellers for three consecutive spring seasons, it’s a strong indicator that similar prints will likely perform well again. This allows you to restock proven favourites while also seeking out variations that build on those trends. Monitoring sell-through rates, returns, and customer feedback also helps fine-tune your understanding of what works. Over time, this historical data becomes a powerful forecasting tool, helping you buy smarter, reduce excess stock, and ensure your store remains aligned with customer demand. In essence, your store’s own performance history becomes a blueprint for future success.
Using Google Analytics
For online fashion retailers, using Google Analytics is a powerful way to forecast trends by understanding customer behaviour and shopping patterns. This free tool provides in-depth insights into how visitors interact with your website, what pages they view most , how long they stay, and which products they add to their carts or purchase. By analysing metrics like page views, bounce rates, and conversion rates on product pages, you can identify which items are generating the most interest, even before they become bestsellers. You can also use demographic and geographic data to spot regional preferences and tailor your inventory accordingly. Google Analytics’ “Site Search” data is particularly useful for tracking what customers are actively looking for, helping you anticipate future demand. For example, a spike in searches for cargo trousers or floral tops may indicate growing interest in those styles, allowing you to stock up in advance. In the long run, combining this behavioural data with sales performance gives you a robust, data-driven approach to forecasting trends and making more strategic buying and marketing decisions for your store.
Connect With Suppliers
Connecting with your suppliers is a vital and often underused method of forecasting fashion trends for your store. Since wholesale suppliers typically work several months ahead of the retail calendar, they often have early access to upcoming styles, colours, and fabrics that will shape future trends. By building strong, communicative relationships with your suppliers, you can tap into this insider knowledge, getting valuable previews of new collections, trend forecasts, and production plans before they hit the wider market. Trusted suppliers can share insights based on what other retailers are ordering, which products are generating early buzz, and which trends they’re investing in for the coming seasons. This information allows you to make more informed buying decisions, ensuring your store is aligned with what’s about to trend, not just what’s currently popular. Essentially, your suppliers can act as trend forecasters in their own right, and maintaining a close relationship with them puts you in a stronger position to buy smarter, plan ahead, and stay ahead of the retail game.
Here at Nova of London, we're always happy to speak and meet with our customers! Customer service are always here to help at sales@novaoflondon.com whilst both of our showrooms are open 6 days a week!
Testing Styles
Testing styles before fully committing to large orders is a smart, low-risk way to forecast what will work for your store and customers. Rather than investing heavily in a full collection upfront, you can start by ordering a few packs of selected styles to see how they will perform. This allows you to gauge real customer interest, monitor sell-through rates, and gather valuable feedback without tying up too much capital in unproven stock. If certain styles, prints, or silhouettes sell quickly, it’s a strong indicator that they align with current demand, giving you confidence to reorder or expand those categories. On the other hand, if a style doesn’t move, you’ve minimised the financial risk and gained insights that can guide future purchasing decisions. This kind of small-scale testing also allows you to be more responsive and adaptable, adjusting your buying strategy based on real-time performance rather than assumptions. It’s an especially useful tactic for independent retailers or boutiques, helping ensure that your store remains trend-aware without over committing on inventory.
At Nova of London, we offer our styles in small packs, mainly just 2 or 4 pieces, making it easy for retailers to trial new trends without overcommitting. With no minimum spend required, it’s a flexible and low-risk way to test what works for your store and customers.
Trend Forecasting Summarised...
In conclusion, forecasting fashion trends is an essential practice that empowers retailers to stay ahead in an ever-changing industry by actively engaging with the fashion world, whether through attending Fashion Weeks, monitoring social media, consulting forecasting agencies, or attending trade shows, store owners can make more informed and timely decisions. Analysing internal data, from sales reports to Google Analytics insights, further sharpens this foresight helping identify what resonates with your audience. Building strong relationships with, especially those who are immersed in early trend development, adds another layer of valuable perspective. For those looking to take a more cautious approach, testing styles in small quantities provides a practical way to assess market response without overcommitting. When all these strategies are used together, they form a comprehensive, proactive method to buying that balances creativity with commercial awareness.
