Research Guides: FASH 342: Retail Buying Simulation: Home

Featured Research Resources

Research Tip: Business Source Complete & ABI/Inform Complete can be used for all aspects of Fashion Merchandising research, including
industries, companies, trends & consumers.

Business Source Complete
Bibliographic and full-text content from peer-reviewed business journals, covering all disciplines of business including marketing, management, accounting, banking, finance, and more.
ABI/INFORM Complete
Abstracts, full-text journals and periodicals on business, finance, and management topics. Includes all content in ABI/INFORM Global, ABI/INFORM Dateline, and ABI/INFORM Trade and Industry. Includes full-text access to The Wall Street Journal.

Research Industries/Markets

IBISWorld
Provides access to industry analysis and research for U.S. industries categorized by NAICS, as well as select Chinese and Global industries organized by sector.
Plunkett Research Online
Analysis and market research for important industry sectors. Includes trend analysis, statistics, organizations, company profiles, information for job-seekers, and ability to create custom reports.
Statista
Statista consolidates statistical data on over 80,000 topics from more than 22,500 sources. Our Market Outlooks provide market sizes, forecasts, key consumer markets and relevant automotive markets for up to 150 countries.

Investopedia
Founded with the mission of simplifying financial decisions and information.
A great resource for learning about financial terminology e.g. 'business model' - browse the Dictionary under the Education tab, or use the search box.

Research a Company

Dow Jones Factiva
Comprehensive, full-text up-to-the-minute news and business source from Dow Jones and Reuters. Includes national, international, and regional newspapers, both current content and archives, periodicals, podcasts, newswires, and more.
Plunkett Research Online
Analysis and market research for important industry sectors. Includes trend analysis, statistics, organizations, company profiles, information for job-seekers, and the ability to create custom reports.
Note: Only good for moderately-sized to large companies
Data Axle
Data Axle provides research on businesses including data summaries by neighborhood, city or state and by type or size of business. Users can conduct market research for similar or competitive businesses in a specific, regional area.
Note: Only good for US-based companies
Business: Insights (Gale)
Business Insights: Global delivers comprehensive international business intelligence including: Global Histories, SWOT Reports, Thomson Reuters Company Financials and Investment Reports, Market Share Reports, and Industry Research Essays.
Morningstar Investment Center
Comprehensive stock database with research reports on companies, data on mutual, closed-end, and exchange-traded funds, investment tools, and educational features including interactive stock training and portfolio techniques.
Note: Only good for publicly-traded companies

Research Tip: Browse a Company's Corporate Website
A public company's corporate website (e.g. h mgroup.com, or g apinc.com) can be a valuable source for information, including:

Description, branding, products, etc
Annual Reports (Click on links for 'Investors')

Trend Forecasting Resources

Market Trend Forecasting Resources

WGSN (Worth Global Style Network)
Focusing on the areas and intersections of fashion, style, and commerce, WGSN provides a global view on trends in design. Its archive contains millions of images from the runways, the street, retail outlets, and design sketches.
Future Snoops (formerly Fashion Snoops)
A global trend forecasting agency focused on the industries of fashion, interior design, and wellness. A personal account, using your VCU email, is required to use the CREATE area or save content.

Consumer Research Resources

Mintel
Full-text market research reports covering US and global consumer markets. Reports analyze market share, segmentation, and trends. Upon first login register with your VCU email address.

Tips for Using Mintel’s Power Features
A guide to some of the features of the new Mintel interface

Statista
Statista consolidates statistical data on over 80,000 topics from more than 22,500 sources. Our Market Outlooks provide market sizes, forecasts, key consumer markets and relevant automotive markets for up to 150 countries.
WARC
Global advertising and marketing trends, including market intelligence, case studies, conference reports, articles, expenditure data, profiles of major brand owners, and consumer insight.
Note: Search for consumer information using a company name (e.g., H&M) or a consumer type (e.g., Gen Z), then filter the results by category (e.g., clothing & accessories) and date for currency.

Consumer Research Guide
More resources for researching your consumers

Consumer Research Tips

What are Demographics?
"Demographic segmentation is the most widely used segmentation technique for consumer products. There is much census data available on age, income, sex, gender, consumer preference, neighborhood, and ethnicity to help the marketer segment these groups in multiple ways."

What are Psychographics?
"Psychographic segmentation is a way of segmenting the market by cultural attitude and psychological type: for example the middle-of-the-road, the fashionable, the thrill-seekers, the security-seekers, the risk-takers, the risk-averse, the aspirational, the image-conscious; the conspicuous consumers, the high achievers, the individualists, the reformers, the highly educated, the family-oriented, the self-actualizers; the strivers, the strugglers, etc."

Doyle, C. (2016). market segmentation. In A Dictionary of Marketing. : Oxford University Press.

Research Tip:
For consumer research in resources like Business Source Complete & ABI/Inform, try searching for [your topic/company] + some of the following keywords:

General e.g. consumer behavior, consumer profile, consumer attitudes, attitude surveys, brand image, ratings and rankings, market research, statistical data, polls and surveys, advertising, and marketing.
Demographic e.g. Millenial, Gen Z, women's, men's, middle income
Lifestyle e.g. athletic, luxury, wellness
Product Category e.g. clothing, accessories, footwear, beauty

Search Examples*

GAP AND women AND clothing or apparel AND consumer or customer or shopper
GAP AND consumer or customer or shopper AND buying or purchasing
H&M AND consumer or customer or shopper AND income

*note: always filter the results to recent publication dates for currency

Use SimplyAnalytics for Consumer Research

SimplyAnalytics
Create thematic maps and reports using extensive demographic, business, and marketing data (like Simmons and Claritas). Allows you to access data by geography, so you can focus on a city, county, zip code, or neighborhood. (5 concurrent users)

To save your data, please create a personal account using your VCU email address.

Maximum Simultaneous Users: 5

SimplyAnalytics/Claritas Segment Details
Use the "Narrow Segments" tool to filter consumer profiles e.g. by income, education or lifestage group. Find relevant consumer types you identified in Simplyanalytics and aply them to your chosen location.
Claritas PRIZM Premier Segment Storyboards 2022
Search this linked PDF for store names (e.g. Nordstrom) within Claritas PRIZM segment descriptions. Use 'Ctrl + F' on PC or 'Command + F' on Mac.
FASH 342 SimplyAnalytics Tutorial
An introduction to using the Simplyanalytics database to find demographic and psychographic (Claritas PRIZM Premier) consumer information.

FASH 342: Retail Buying Simulation

Assortment Planning Resources

Statista

WGSN

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