(SAN FRANCISCO — ) — Stitch Labs, an industry leader in cloud-based inventory control and multichannel selling commerce solutions, revealed its findings on consumers' clothing size preferences across the U.S. The data indicates that consumers in western states (California, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Hawaii) prefer smaller sized apparel, purchasing almost double the amount of X-Small apparel compared to the U.S. average. Consumers in South Dakota, Nebraska and Iowa, on the other hand, purchase the most X-Large and 2X-Large apparel. One in three pieces of apparel purchased in these states is an X-Large or 2X-Large. 

From the smallest to largest apparel sizes, Stitch Labs investigated the size breakdown of apparel purchases by analyzing the portion of each size by its customers across the U.S. Additional findings include: 

• California and New York Have Similar Size Breakdown
o X-Large and 2X-Large apparel accounted for 15.2 percent of sales in California and 14.8 percent of sales in New York. 
o Nearly 30 percent of apparel sold in either states is X-Small or Small. 

• Texas Consumers Prefer Larger Apparel 
o Five times more X-Larges are sold in Texas than X-Smalls.
o For every X-Small apparel item sold, nearly 11 Large apparel items are sold in Texas, compared to 7.5 nationwide.

• Southern States Purchase the Least 2X-Large Apparel 
o 2X-Large apparel makes up 2.6 percent of sales in this region, compared to the national average of 4.1 percent. 

• Connecticut's Sizing Breakdown Most Closely Resembles U.S. Average
o For every 100 items sold in Connecticut, less than 1 item will have a different size than 100 items sold nationwide.

• Average U.S. Sizing Breakdown
o 3.7 percent of apparel sold is X-Small
o 21 percent of apparel sold is Small
o 29.3 percent of apparel sold is Medium 
o 28 percent of apparel sold is size Large 
o 13.9 percent of apparel sold is X-Large 
o 4.1 percent of apparel sold is 2X-Large 

"As the apparel industry grows, it is increasingly important for retailers to accurately allocate inventory quantities across warehouse and store locations," said Brandon Levey, CEO and co-founder of Stitch Labs. "The data indicates that if retailers are only using national averages for size ratios as the basis for warehouse allocation, stocking store locations, or production of inventory, they may be missing out on revenue growth opportunities as a result of over or under stocking." 

"The only thing more frustrating to a consumer than an out of stock product is when the size they need is out of stock," continued Levey "The apparel industry is a $300+ billion dollar industry in the U.S. alone. The data indicates that even small differences in what businesses purchase versus what customers want to buy puts millions of dollars of revenue at risk every year. When businesses make uninformed purchasing decisions, like using the national average for size ratios, they unnecessarily jeopardize their revenue growth opportunities."


Data used for analysis was based on orders synced with Stitch Labs from January 1, 2013 to December 31, 2013, which is an aggregation of more than one million orders, totaling more than $100 million in sales from tens of thousands of different businesses. This analysis includes only orders that were shipped to a known U.S. postal code that contained items with an attribute of size and a variant that exactly matched small, medium, large, xxl, x-large, or other similar iterations which typically represent apparel sized from X-Small to 2X-Large. 

To learn more about how Stitch Labs' inventory control solution helps retailers make smarter business decisions through real-time data reporting, please visit www.stitchlabs.com.


About Stitch Labs
Stitch Labs is an online platform for multichannel sellers who need to manage their inventory, orders and sales data information all in one intuitive location. Stitch integrates with Amazon, Ebay, Etsy, Shopify, Quickbooks, Xero, BigCommerce and Square, enabling businesses to grow their multichannel selling strategy with ease. For more information about Stitch Labs, visit www.stitchlabs.com or reach out to our team at press@stitchlabs.com.

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