The value clothing market in the UK has been rising at a much higher rate than the UK clothing market as a whole for the past 10 years but now things are starting to slow down.

The report by verdict research found that although over the past decade, the value sector has consistently outperformed the total clothing market taking a greater share each year. However, its rapid growth rate is beginning to stall and the market is consolidating making it more difficult for players to produce the high growth rates of previous years.

Value fashion is still strong and in 2007 the £8.5bn market accounts for nearly 25% of all money spent on clothes in the UK but these figures are set to slowly fall over the next few years.

One of the main freasons for this slowdown is that middle market retailers have sharpened their own prices to compete with the less pricey competition. So shoppers no longer need to visit value retailers to get low prices, which makes it harder for value retailers to differentiate on price alone.

So what does that mean for us shoppers? Well in theory it means that if all retailers are offering clothes at equally low prices they will have to find another way to compete. So it could mean that stores such as Primark will be forced to consider the quality of their clothes or the layout of their shops to entice customers in.

Issues such as fair trade and eco friendly materials could also paly a big part in what happens next. Consumers are already starting to question the ethical issues behind such cheap fashion so perhaps fair priced clothes will be the way forward.

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