Market

Trade press by industry: market monitoring sources for a wholesale brand

Buyer moves, store closures, distributors in difficulty: this news arrives through the trade press long before the end-of-season figures. An overview of the trade press by industry, from fashion to cosmetics, with the databases to follow and a method for reading little, but usefully.

8 min read ·

Key takeaways

  • Useful market monitoring needs only a few sources: two or three international titles from your industry, the reference title in your own country and one data source are enough to start.
  • The trade press reports what directly affects your sales: buyer moves, store openings and closures, a distributor in difficulty, the trends of the season.
  • Every industry has its international reference titles, most often in English; a brand that exports also reads the national press of its target countries.
  • International statistical databases and trade federations provide sourced, free figures that can be compared across countries and years.
  • External news tells you what is happening in the market; your own sales figures tell you what is happening with your customers. Read them together.

A boutique closes, a department store changes buyer, a retail chain files for insolvency, a trade show moves its dates. For a brand selling wholesale, this news arrives first through the trade press, weeks before the end-of-season figures confirm it. You still need to know what to read. Every industry has its reference titles, newsletters and data sources, and they are not the same for a ready-to-wear label, an eyewear maker or a candle manufacturer.

This guide lists, industry by industry, the international media that sales teams read. It complements our overview of the wholesale market for brands. Sources for the UK and the US are grouped at the end of the article.

How to organise your wholesale market monitoring

Monitoring is not an exhaustive press review. It is a short, regular habit focused on what changes your sales decisions: who to welcome to the showroom, which customer to follow up, which market to open. Digital has multiplied the sources, as the trends in wholesale digitalisation show: the risk is no longer a lack of information, but drowning in it. Four tools are enough to structure it.

Trade press by industry: fashion and ready-to-wear

Fashion has the widest choice, from daily news sites to analysis magazines. A sales director reads them first for appointments and store moves, which change the account list from one season to the next.

Footwear: following retailers and manufacturing countries

Footwear is read on two levels: retail life downstream, and global production upstream, where costs and lead times are decided.

Optical and eyewear: groups, distribution and frame trends

In eyewear, a frame sells both as a medical device and as a fashion accessory. The sector press therefore covers the business of the groups as well as collection trends.

Jewellery and watches: from stone prices to retailer news

A jewellery brand watches its retailers as closely as its materials. As soon as a collection includes stones, the market price weighs on the wholesale price.

Home and decor: furniture, gift and home textiles

The sector splits into product families, each with its own title. A candle brand will not read the same press as a bed-linen label.

Sport and outdoor: brand and retailer results

The sports trade press is very business-minded: it follows brand results and the health of retailers, which directly concerns a brand that sells to them.

Cosmetics and fragrance: launches and regulation

In beauty, regulation is followed as closely as launches, because it determines what a brand can sell, and where.

Textiles and materials: upstream of the collection

These sources are aimed first at product teams, but they also brief the sales side on the colours, materials and manufacturing constraints of the coming season.

Where to find reliable statistics on a market?

Public databases provide figures that can be compared across countries and years. They help you check that a market which looks buoyant at a trade show is also growing in its imports.

A short selection, shared every week

There is no need to follow everything. Choose one or two international titles for your industry, the reference title in your own country and one data source. Then add the national title of each country you are prospecting, along with the publications of its export promotion agency; how to approach those markets is covered in our guide to selling wholesale internationally.

Record in your CRM anything that concerns a specific customer (new buyer, opening, difficulty) and share the three pieces of news that matter with the sales team every week. Finally, set these signals against your own indicators, such as your retailers’ sell-through and open-to-buy. The technical terms you will come across in these publications are defined in our wholesale glossary.

In the UK and the US

National events and sources, alongside the international selection above.

Fashion & apparel

  • Drapers — United Kingdom · The UK's fashion retail trade title: industry news, trends and analysis for brands and retailers.
  • WWD — United States · Daily US trade publication covering fashion, retail and beauty business news.

Footwear

  • Footwear News — United States · US footwear industry publication covering shoe business, sneakers and fashion.

Eyewear

  • Optician — United Kingdom · Weekly UK magazine for eyecare professionals: news, frames and lenses, business advice and CPD.
  • Vision Monday — United States · US optical industry news: business, retail rankings, tariffs and market data.

Jewellery & watches

  • Professional Jeweller — United Kingdom · UK jewellery and watch trade magazine and website, free to industry professionals.
  • Retail Jeweller — United Kingdom · UK jewellery trade news site that also runs the Retail Jeweller Festival trade event in London.

Home & interiors

  • Home Accents Today — United States · US trade publication for home furnishings, lighting and decor retailers, with daily editions at major markets.

Beauty & fragrance

  • Cosmetics Business — United Kingdom · UK B2B beauty publication covering industry news, ingredients, packaging, regulation and retail.

Data & research

Frequently asked questions

How much time should you spend on market monitoring each week?

Around fifteen minutes a day, or an hour a week, is enough if the sources are well chosen. Two newsletters read every day are worth more than ten subscriptions that are never opened.

Do you need to pay for trade press subscriptions?

Not necessarily to start with: many titles publish part of their articles and a newsletter for free. A paid subscription is worthwhile for the reference title of your industry or of a priority export market.

How can the sales team make use of market monitoring?

Link each piece of news to a customer or a market, record it in the CRM and share a short weekly summary. Before a trade show or a meeting, reread what has been published about the buyer and their store.

Where can you find reliable figures on an export market?

Start with the public international trade databases, Eurostat and Trade Map, and with the publications of trade federations. Then add the market notes of your own country’s export promotion agency, such as Business France for a French brand.

Which trade press should you read in fashion?

For daily news on stores and appointments, FashionNetwork and FashionUnited. For strategic analysis, The Business of Fashion, and for coverage of department stores and runway shows, WWD.

Sources

  1. Selected datasets — Eurostat
  2. Sélection de données — Eurostat
  3. Trade Map — International Trade Centre (ITC)
  4. About us — Europa Star
  5. Team France Export — Direction générale du Trésor

Further reading