Clothing Consumption During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence From Mining Tweets

Abstract

Understanding how consumers have shifted in clothing consumption in the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic is critical for fashion clothing brands and businesses to identify what value means to consumers to locate growth opportunities. This exploratory study intends to provide a picture of consumers’ clothing consumption evolution while going through the pandemic crisis. We take a viewpoint that integrates the perspectives of life status changes and stress coping to examine consumers’ responses to clothing consumption during the COVID-19 global pandemic. A total of 68,511 relevant tweets were collected from January 1, 2020, through September 31, 2020. Sentiment and content analysis identified five themes which are revealed by 16 topics associated with clothing consumption over the phases of pre-lockdown, lockdown, and reopening. Pent-up demand for clothing products and changed clothing consumption habits were identified. Our findings provide evidence that consumption change is the fundamental mechanism of stress coping.