Pulse of Prom

    NEW YORK, NY, May 16, 2018 /24-7PressRelease/ -- With the prom dress buying season beginning to wrap up, Occasion Brands, LLC, releases this issue of Pulse of Prom exploring the relationship between when online dresses for junior and senior prom are ordered and the date of the event in year-over-year (YOY) 2018 and 2017. In the data reviewed for this issue, order dates represent the days that purchases were made for junior and senior prom dresses, while event dates are the days of the junior and senior proms for those orders as reported by consumers. In the US, the median number of days between order and event dates for junior and senior prom has been between 30-34 days in both 2017 and 2018. This shows that consumers are buying prom dresses online about a month in advance of their proms. They do not wait until the last minute to shop online. Data also reveals that event dates for online prom dress shoppers fall between late April and late May, with junior proms occurring one to two weeks earlier than senior proms.

Online Consumers Purchase Dresses Early for Junior and Senior Prom
Nationally, based on the median number of days between order date and event date, consumers tend to shop on a similar timeframe for both junior and senior proms. The time frame varies slightly by region. Consumers in the Northeast purchase dresses with more days between their order date and event date (for both junior and senior prom) than any other region. In 2018, consumers in the Northeast bought their prom dresses online with a median number of 50 days before their senior prom, and 43 days before their junior prom. Shopping online closer to their event dates, consumers in the West committed to buying junior prom dresses a median number of 24 days before their event and senior prom dresses 26 days before their event. This may speak to the availability of dresses with Northeast shoppers not wanting to have popular styles sell out in advance of their proms which are held later than other regions.

Junior Proms Occur Before Senior Prom
In both 2017 and 2018, the majority of junior proms fell between late April and mid-May, while the majority of senior proms occurred between late April and late May. For 2018 junior prom, the earliest median prom dates belong to the Pacific and South regions, falling on the week of April 15th. Closely following is the West, with median prom dates falling on the week of April 22nd. The Northeast and Midwest regions have the latest median junior prom dates reported, falling on the week of May 6th. For senior prom 2018, the earliest median prom dates are the week of April 15th for the Pacific region. The median prom dates in the South and West regions fall on the week of April 22nd. The latest median prom dates were seen in the Midwest and Northeast regions, falling on the week of May 13th. Nationally, senior proms in each region are one to two weeks after junior proms per the event dates reported by consumers. https://www.promgirl.com/

The Data
The data for these late season prom trends represents orders placed in 2017 and 2018 between January 1 and May 5, and event dates collected between April 1 and July 31 across the United States by PromGirl, a leading national online prom retailer.

About Occasion Brands, LLC
PromGirl, founded in 1998, has sold over 2 million dresses online and is the largest online retailer of prom and other special-occasion dresses. It offers an unparalleled selection of high-quality, in-stock dresses at all price points. Through the website, mobile and social platforms, PromGirl's reach is global, delivering "dream dresses" to more than 140 international destinations. As part of the Occasion Brands portfolio, its mission is to be the premier retailer in the special-occasion dress market by providing a world-class shopping experience and maintaining customer trust through an understanding of their needs as they experience some of the most important moments in their lives. Occasion Brands' staff is based in New York City and Middletown, Delaware, and its state-of-the-art facility in New Jersey houses hundreds of thousands of dresses for PromGirl, Simply Dresses, and Kleinfeld Bridal Party.

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