Trend forecasting started in fashion, but the sector has come of age, with free sites predicting the next waves across a range of industries. Photo: BURBERRY
It was a single sentence in a report on Emap but it was most revealing. The magazine company, publisher of Nursing Times, Retail Week and Construction News, had a new revenue unit. It was called WGSN and most readers will be forgiven for having never heard of it.
WGSN, (Worth Global Style Network), is a trend forecasting website with more than 38,000 users including Armani and Walmart. At the end of January, EMAP revealed WGSN created £40m of revenues in 2010, up by 5pc on the previous year – roughly the same amount of revenue generated by all of Emap's magazines put together.
In an era of social media and hyper-connectivity, trend forecasting is becoming more and more important for business. And it is therefore also becoming a big and highly competitive business.
Trend forecasting sites have come a long way since British brothers Julian and Marc Worth started WGSN in 1997. Back then all style forecasting happened in print and was a major books business. The Worth brothers took it online, all in one place, updated daily, and then charged business annual subscriptions starting at £16,500.
