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

Ozempic users are consuming fewer calories and, as a result, purchasing smaller sizes to fit their newly svelte bodies or, in some cases, choosing more revealing fashion styles.

Some clothing brands have noticed that their customers are purchasing new clothing items that are several sizes smaller, which they suspect is likely due to customers losing weight after taking Ozempic or similar GLP-1 weight loss medications. At the same time, Walmart he said shoppers are purchasing “fewer units” of food due to the popularity of medicines, and Nestlé has even launched a food line specifically for users of GLP-1 weight loss medications.

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

“This is already affecting demand in some categories and will affect demand in others. With millions of people entering this new drug space, we are wondering what this will not affect?” Leigh O’Donnell, vice president of shopping insights at Kantar, a market research company, told CBS MoneyWatch.

Customers are decreasing

Bryan Davis, founder of Teddy Stratford, a New York-based company that makes slip dresses and casual shirts for men, said that in recent months, enough of his longtime customers have suddenly started ordering shirts two sizes too small. The normal. orders that led him to consider what was motivating the change.

“Because we are an e-commerce company, we can see our customers’ individual purchase history and monitor it for irregularities to mitigate returns and exchanges,” Davis told CBS MoneyWatch. “We saw many of our customers ordering one or two sizes smaller than in the past. When we contact them to confirm that the new size was intentional, they always confirm that it was.”

Of course, Davis can’t be sure that the weight-loss drugs are driving this pattern — the company doesn’t survey customers about their use of the drugs. But he suspects the rise in GLP-1 is behind the trend. “We didn’t know why this was happening, but it made perfect sense. Our client generally earns more and could definitely afford Ozempic,” he said.

About a third of weight-loss drug users searched of Morning Consult said they were buying new clothes more frequently compared with the period before starting the medication, said Nicki Zink, the company’s deputy head of industry analysis.

“It makes sense that people would also look to buy smaller clothes or new styles,” Zink told CBS MoneyWatch.

Hip-hugging fabrics

While during the COVID-19 pandemic Americans gravitated toward comfortable, loose-fitting and sometimes body-concealing clothing like sweatpants, O’Donnell of the market research firm Kantar said that, anecdotally, she saw There has recently been an increase in the number of consumers gravitating towards stretchy, body-hugging clothing. fabrics, as well as styles like form-fitting dresses, which show off the wearers’ every curve.

“It has body positivity built in. It says, whatever your shape, let’s see. It also gives a lot of flexibility, compared to the pair of jeans I bought 10 years ago that were cotton, heavy, and I needed to be the exact shape of my body.” jeans to feel good in them,” she said.

Eating out is down, exercising is up

The Morning Consult survey of more than 4,400 U.S. adults, conducted in November 2023, also found that 38% of GLP-1 users reported exercising more frequently since starting taking the medications. This could be a boon for the fitness industry if in the coming years more Americans invest in gyms, exercise classes or home equipment.

At the same time, they cook at home more often rather than eating in restaurants, probably because this gives them greater control over the ingredients they consume, as well as portion sizes.

Morgan Stanley research analysts also found that respondents said they exercised more after they started taking anti-obesity medications. The percentage of respondents who said they exercise weekly doubled, going from 35% before medication to 71% after.

Morgan Stanley equity research analyst Brian Harbor explained the relationship between medications and exercise, saying in a research note, “…perhaps as patients lose weight, they simply feel more physically capable and more mentally motivated to exercise more to increase the benefits they are seeing with weight loss medications.”