Ozempic users are buying clothing in smaller sizes. Here’s how different GLP-1 drugs are changing consumers.

Ozempic users are consuming fewer calories and as a result are buying smaller sizes to fit their newly revealed bodies or, in some cases, opting for more revealing fashion styles.

Some clothing brands have noted that their customers are purchasing new clothing items several sizes down, which they suspect is likely due to customers losing weight after taking Ozempic or similar weight loss medications. weight loss GLP-1. At the same time, Walmart said shoppers are buying “fewer units” of food because of the drug’s popularity, and Nestle has even launched a food line especially for users of GLP-1 weight loss drugs.

There’s hardly a consumption category, from food and drink to travel and leisure, that Americans’ growing adoption of weight-loss drugs won’t shake, according to analysts who study the drug’s impact on consumer behavior.

“It’s already affecting demand in some categories and will affect demand in others. With millions coming into this new drug space, we’re asking what won’t it affect?” Leigh O’Donnell, vice president of shopping insights at Kantar, a market research company, told CBS MoneyWatch.

Customers are dwindling

Bryan Davis, founder of Teddy Stratford, a New York-based company that makes tailored dresses and casual shirts for men, said that in recent months, many of his longtime customers suddenly started ordering shirts that were two sizes smaller than usual. orders that this prompted him to consider what was driving the change.

“Because we’re an e-commerce company, we can see our customer’s individual purchase history, and we monitor it for irregularities to mitigate returns and exchanges,” Davis told CBS MoneyWatch. “We’ve seen a lot of our customers who order a size or two smaller than they have in the past, when we contact them to confirm that the new size was on purpose, they always confirm that it is.

Of course, Davis can’t be sure that weight-loss drugs are leading the way — the company doesn’t survey customers about their drug use. But he suspects the increase in GLP-1 is behind the trend. “We didn’t know why this was happening, but it makes total sense. Our customer generally earns more and they can definitely afford Ozempic,” he said.

About a third of weight-loss drug users surveyed by Morning Consult said they were shopping for new clothes more often than before they started taking the drug, said Nicki Zink, the company’s vice director of industry analysis.

“It makes sense that people would be looking to buy smaller clothes or new styles as well,” Zink told CBS MoneyWatch.

Hip-hugging fabrics

As Americans gravitated toward comfortable, baggy and sometimes figure-hugging clothing like sweatpants during the COVID-19 pandemic, O’Donnell of market research firm Kantar said that, anecdotally, she has recently seen an increase in consumers that gravitate towards elasticity and body hugging. fabrics, as well as styles such as bodycon dresses, which show off every curve of the wearer.

“It has body positivity built in. It says, whatever shape you are, let’s see it. It also gives a lot of flexibility, versus the blue jeans I bought 10 years ago that were cotton, heavy weight, and I had to be your shape jeans to feel good in them,” she said.

Eating out is low, exercise is high

Morning Consult’s survey of more than 4,400 US adults, conducted in November 2023, also found that 38% of GLP-1 users reported exercising more often since they started taking the drug. This could be a boon for the fitness industry if in the coming years more Americans invest in gym memberships, exercise classes or home equipment.

At the same time, they are cooking more often at home, as opposed to dining out, likely because it gives them more control over the ingredients they consume, as well as portion sizes.

Morgan Stanley research analysts also found that respondents said they exercised more after starting to take anti-obesity medications. The percentage of respondents who said they exercised weekly doubled from 35% before treatment to 71% after.

Morgan Stanley Equity Research analyst Brian Harbor explained the relationship between medication and exercise, saying in a research note, “…perhaps as patients lose weight, they simply feel physically fitter and mentally motivated to exercise more to compound the benefits they are seeing from weight loss medications.”