Wholesale underwear can help retailers and households alike to keep their budgets in check during a climate of rising clothing prices.

Clothing – and underwear in particular – is an essential cost that must be met by all British households, and yet official figures show it is currently one of the most rapidly rising areas of expenditure.

The Office for National Statistics cites clothing alongside transport costs as the two major upward contributors towards inflation on the consumer prices index in May 2013.

Between April and May 2013, clothing prices rose by an average of 1.2%, while during the same period a year ago, they fell by 0.1%.

Wholesale underwear itself may have contributed in part to the rise, as unseasonably cold weather is likely to have driven customer demand higher at the retail point of sale.

However, the ONS notes that women’s outerwear drove the percentage increase higher than it might otherwise have been.

By purchasing the right choice of wholesale underwear, clothing retailers can help households to keep their outgoings manageable – while still driving a profit for themselves.

Our underwear wholesalers are able to advise you on the best options for your business, to ensure inflation does not unduly affect your bottom line.

Wholesale underwear might not sound like the obvious retail item to benefit from the summer music festivals season, but a recent article on Fashion Bust suggests otherwise.

The recently launched fashion and lingerie newswire argues that, when preparing for a festival, your choice of underwear is as important as anything.

“While comfort is the most important factor for briefs when we’re camping, that doesn’t mean you can’t have some fun with your undies,” the authors claim.

In particular, wholesale underwear multipacks could be particularly popular among festivalgoers, as they can offer the convenience of several pairs of underwear, all still handily in their original packaging.

As always in warmer weather, lightweight styles and natural fibres are likely to sell especially well, while mud-proof colours can also be expected to sell well.

With music festivals offering near-universal appeal, it’s a buying trend that’s likely to span the genders, not to mention a good range of different ages too.

For this trend in particular, we expect that you should be stocking wholesale underwear for anyone aged in their late teens, right up to those who have been going to festivals for decades, and are now potentially in their 40s or 50s.

Wholesale underwear serves an important part of the retail market, and you could be forgiven for thinking that, as an essential item, people only replace their underwear either when they grow out of it, or when it gets past its best.

New research from the AA’s Home Emergency Response service, however, reveals that there is at least one other reason why many Britons need to replace their underwear.

That is because it is just one of the many items that some households have managed to lose down their drain.

As unlikely as it seems, some people have actually seen their underwear disappear down the plughole or round the U-bend.

The research found 1% of people have lost underwear down the drain, at an average estimated value of £4 per item.

With the UK population currently standing at just under 63 million people, that’s an estimated 630,000 items of underwear lost, at a combined value of just over £2.5 million to the wholesale underwear market.

The same percentage of people have lost socks down the drain, at a cost of £1.81 each or around another £1.14 million in total.

Wholesale underwear offers retailers a wide variety of products to suit different price points – allowing you to hammer home the value proposition at the point of sale.

According to business advice from Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks, it is this sense of value – rather than of price alone – that is driving many consumers’ shopping habits at the moment.

That means that the traditional brands that have been popular in the market in recent years may not hold the same level of perceived authority any more, opening up the potential to stock a wider range of products at different prices.

Richard Wallace, Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks’ head of regional business, says: “Although there may be a perception that people do not have money to spend, there does seem to be a real opportunity for companies looking to reassess how their products are viewed.”

He adds that many consumers are looking for the best possible return for their money, in light of research by Mintel that found 76% of shoppers are focusing more closely on their spending, with clothing still among the top three areas in which they are willing to buy.

With this in mind, clothing retailers must strike a fine balance between this willingness to buy and a desire for value – two intentions that can be equally well served with the right choice of wholesale underwear.

Wholesale underwear purchases are helping US economists to predict economic recovery, according to one financial commentator.

Ross Kenneth Urken, writing for business analysis site MainStreet, explains that when wholesale underwear revenues rise in the US, overall economic prosperity usually follows.

This may be because, when consumer confidence begins to rise, essential items like underwear are among the first discretionary purchases shoppers begin to make.

In particular, it is men’s underwear – where discretionary spend is more likely to drop in troubled times – that is most useful in predicting this trend.

“Though 2012 men’s apparel sales rose a meagre 1% [in the US], underwear sales shot up 13%, according to NPD Group,” Mr Urken writes.

“Even former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan has used this economic indicator to take the temperature of the economy.”

And as we all know, retail trends in the US often predict those that will occur in the following months in the UK.

With that in mind, it is worth investing early in wholesale underwear, to have the stock ready to spring when green shoots begin to appear in the British retail sector.