With Christmas just around the corner, retailers are gearing up for the busiest time of the year, not to mention the chaos that ensues with both Black Friday and Cyber Monday. But what is hot and what is not this year? Getting it right as a retailer can be make or break.

As search marketers, every time someone types a query into a search bar we a given insight into the consumer path and attitudes towards buying. Google has put together a report highlighting fashion trends in the current search climate to help online fashion retailers get a glimpse of how their consumers are behaving and hopefully help predict their next fashion move.

They have compiled top searches for some of the most influential trends from 2016 which has allowed them to put together the information in their Fashion Trend Report which provides a strong demographic representation of the population and gives insight into buyer behaviours.

The data presented includes information from multiple markets including the UK and the USA which gives good insight into how trends spread geographically and how behaviours emerge across the two markets.

In order to collect a list of accurate trends in the fashion industry, Google has pulled the top volume queries that are related to apparel and fashion. They then looked at monthly volume from May 2014 – May 2016 and removed any seasonal effect. This allowed Google to measure the year-on-year growth, velocity and acceleration for each search query. By doing this they were able to classify the queries into similar trend patterns and then curate the most significant trends to illustrate shifts in behaviour.