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The Indiana Daily Student

Survey measures consumer attitudes toward fashion trends

This holiday season, consumers are ready to break the bank, according to a recent Fashion Innovation Index survey released by the Kelley School of Business.

Produced in collaboration with Kalypso, a consulting firm, and CollegeFashionista.com, the FINdex measures consumer attitudes toward fashion trends in the footwear, apparel and accessory 
industries.

“Our respondents are showing the potential for a strong holiday selling season, with our index at its highest level in three years,” said Steve Riordan, an IU alumnus and partner and retail practice leader at Kalypso.

The FINdex survey comprises survey data obtained from a sample of “style gurus,” a curated group of more than 800 college-aged students who are up-to-date on the latest style and fashion trends, according to the FINdex 
webite.

“We are hoping that our index can be quantitatively linked to retail sales,” Riordan said. “Ideally the index would be predictive, which would help retailers better plan 
inventories, promotions and such.”

John Talbott, the associate director for the Center for Education and Research in Retail, was responsible for developing the survey instrument and administering the survey.

“This holiday season our results indicate that the StyleGurus have more money to spend and are finding innovative apparel and footwear products stores,” Talbott said.

This season’s strong FINdex score can largely be attributed to the perceived amount of innovation appearing in the color, prints and fabrications of footwear and apparel products, with more than 80 percent of respondents saying the products they were seeing in stores were more 
innovative than a year ago.

“A lot of boots will be sold this holiday season, and I expect that the fourth quarter of the year will be a good one for better retailers,” Talbott said. “We continue to evolve toward a digital and brick and mortar retail eco-system.”

Talbott said digital stores, which he said most brands now feature, have become retailers’ most important selling locations.

Talbott said the survey was modeled off of the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index, but the study focused on a different 
population.

Compared to the Consumer Sentiment Index, which has been around since 1964, the FINdex database, the three-year-old FINdex database is relatively new, Talbot said.

Riordan said the researchers provided incentive to participants by offering respondents the chance to win a complete outfit, which he said is an appealing offer to many fashion-minded college-aged women. However, he said, the research does have bias in that respondents are not necessarily representative of college-aged shoppers.

“The purchase preferences of college-age women are very interesting to many retailers,” Talbott said. “If anything our report is of more practical use right now than it is from a pure science standpoint.”

Talbott said the next FINdex report will be conducted in early March.

“We will continue to run our survey at key shopping times during the year,” Talbott said. “As we acquire more data points we can see how our survey relates to data points in the broader economy with more statistical reliability.”

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