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Junior & Senior Early 2019 Prom Dress Price Trends
Pulse of Prom
Early Sales Show an Uptick in Consumer Spending for Junior and Senior Prom Dresses
New York, NY, March 21, 2019 --
With the start of the 2019 prom dress buying season, Occasion Brands, LLC, releases Pulse of Prom to highlight the early prom season’s sales trends online. In 2019, senior prom sales accounted for 55% of total prom sales; whereas, 45% of sales are for junior prom dresses. Sales volumes vary regionally with 30% of total prom sales in the South, 28% in the Northeast, 29% in the Midwest, and just 13% in the West and Pacific (HI, AK). Data shows the overwhelming majority of junior and senior prom dress purchases online in January and February were for long dresses. Early prom dress sales show 74% of consumers are spending between $100 and $300 on their prom dress purchases online. This is a higher price point for consumer prom dress spending compared to early prom 2018.
Consumers Are Spending More
Most prom dress purchasers are spending between $100 and $300 for junior and senior prom dresses. In fact, 74% of all prom sales are within this price range, with 46% between $100 and $200, and 28% between $200 and $300. This is a clear uptick in consumer spending year-over-year compared to early prom sales in 2018. At this time last year, only 63% of all prom sales were between $100 and $300 dollars with 44% between $100 and $200, and 19% between $200 and $300. Also, only 14% of all prom sales so far in 2019 are below $100. In 2018 a larger portion of sales were for under $100 (23%). This data shows that for prom 2019, consumers are willing to spend a bit more for junior and senior prom dresses than they were in 2018.
Long Dresses Are the Clear Choice for Senior and Junior Prom Buyers
For the 2019 prom dress buying season so far, 93% of all prom sales, junior and senior, are for long dresses. Senior prom dress sales show that at 98% of sales, long dresses are the preferred choice across all US regions with minimal variation regionally. While still strongly favoring long dresses, junior prom dress buyers show a slightly higher preference for short dresses. Total junior prom dress sales show 87% of purchases were for long dresses and 13% for short. The regional breakdown varies greatly for dress lengths for junior prom. The Midwest and South show the highest preference for long dresses with 96% and 91% of total junior prom sales for floor-length dresses respectively, and the West and Pacific follow closely behind with 89% and 85% total sales for long styles. The Northeast region showed the highest preference for short dresses across the regions with 26% total junior prom dress sales for short styles and 74% for long styles.
About Pulse of Prom
Pulse of Prom is an industry-focused hot-sheet report which highlights what is selling online across each region of the country during prom season. This early season issue focuses on price. Biweekly, future issues will cover styles and trends for prom dress sales this 2019 season. For example, the favorite styles for prom 2018 were v-necklines, a-line silhouettes, simple cuts, and statement backs. It remains to be seen if this trend will hold for prom 2019.
Based on the dresses that premiered at market this year from prom designers, navy blue is predicted to be the top-selling color for prom 2019. Yellow and additional shades of blue were predicted to rise in popularity, while it’s anticipated that mauve pink and burgundy red would remain top picks from prom 2018 into the new season. While chiffon and jersey continue to predominate the market, a rise of glitter metallic, sequin, and satin are predicted to impact the top-selling fabrics for prom 2019. In the next issue, early style and color sales trends will start to reveal how close these predictions are to consumer preferences for 2019 prom dresses.
The Data
The data for these early season prom trends represents sales between January 1 and March 8, 2019. The 2018 data is from January 1 to February 28, 2018. All data is across the United States by Occasion Brands, a leading national online prom retailer.
About Occasion Brands, LLC
PromGirl, founded in 1998, has sold over 2 million dresses online and is the largest online retailer of prom, homecoming, and other special-occasion dresses. It offers an unparalleled selection of high-quality, in-stock dresses at all price points. Through the website, mobile and social platforms, PromGirl’s reach is global, delivering “dream dresses” to more than 140 international destinations. As part of the Occasion Brands portfolio, PromGirl supports the Occasion Brands mission to be the premier retailer in the special-occasion dress market by providing a world-class shopping experience and maintaining customer trust through an understanding of their needs as they experience some of the most important moments in their lives. Occasion Brands’ staff is based in New York City and Middletown, Delaware, and its state-of-the-art facility in New Jersey houses hundreds of thousands of dresses for PromGirl and its sister brands, Simply Dresses and Kleinfeld Bridal Party. In 2018, Occasion Brands expanded its reach by opening a PromGirl pop-up store in New Jersey, a Simply Dresses pop-up store in New York City, and a Kleinfeld Bridal Party Showroom located on the upper level of the Kleinfeld Bridal store.
