Global wholesale platform JOOR has unveiled a number of trends it’s seeing in fashion wholesale and said DTC brands are moving into wholesale at a faster rate, independents are becoming more important, and luxury prices are set to rationalise, among other findings.

On that third point, when the post-pandemic period was strong, the luxury market continued to steadily increase prices. But with the tide turning and consumers beginning to question the value of luxury goods and deprioritise these purchases, JOOR predicts a correction in the market. 

“Luxury brands are strategically introducing more affordable opening price options, as retailers are taking a more cautious approach to their assortment planning. When comparing the first three quarters of 2024 to the same time last year, JOOR transaction data shows that buyers have reduced the average price point of their purchases by 7%,” it said. This decline is occurring across all regions of the world, with EMEA and APAC both down 7% to last year and North American retailers on average reducing their price per unit by 5%.

The company’s data is drawn from the activities of more than 14,000 brands and 650,000 curated fashion buyers across 150 countries on the JOOR platform. 

As mentioned, it also said independent retailers are on the rise. They’re “playing an increasingly significant role in driving growth across the global fashion sector, reflecting consumers’ returning appetite for unique and more personal shopping experiences. Over the past five years, the percentage of total wholesale transaction volume on JOOR attributed to independent retailers has dramatically increased from 47% to 59%. The channel plays an even more critical role in EMEA and APAC, where the percentages are 74% and 76%, respectively”.

As for DTC brands moving more into wholesale, it said they’ve recognised “the challenges of a DTC-only strategy, including high customer acquisition and operational costs, and the benefits of adopting a diversified distribution model. 2025 is set to be the year that traditionally DTC brands further expand their wholesale penetration as they confirm the positive role that wholesale can play in driving profitable growth. Recent analysis at JOOR has shown many industry-leading DTC businesses, including Fabletics, Bandier, Merse and J McLaughlin, joining the platform to accelerate wholesale growth”.

Other trends it has seen include brands and retailers continuing to race towards complete digitisation of their analogue processes. “Using full integration to allow data to seamlessly flow from one system to another without manual entry will enable companies to extract the greatest value and cost savings from their technology investments,” it said. And a recent analysis of JOOR’s impact on British heritage brand Belstaff showed an 80% reduction in operational costs, in part thanks to systems integrations.

Finally it said brand management companies continue to grow in popularity. Such companies include Marquee Brands, WHP and Authentic Brands Group, all of which reflect a move towards an asset-light business model, “streamlining traditional brand operations to focus on IP in a bid to lighten operating costs”. 

For 2025, JOOR predicts even more brands will be acquired by such businesses, increasing their requirement for innovative technologies designed to support the needs of multi-brand operations.