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

Ozempic users consume fewer calories and therefore buy smaller sizes to fit their newly toned bodies or in some cases opt for more revealing fashion styles.

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

There’s hardly a category of consumption, from food and beverages to travel and leisure, that America’s increased adoption of weight-loss drugs won’t shake up, according to experts who study the drugs’ effects on consumer behavior.

“It’s already affecting demand in some categories, and it’s going to affect demand in others. With millions entering this new drug space, we’re wondering what impact it won’t have?” Leigh O’Donnell, vice president of business insights at Kantar, a market research firm, told CBS MoneyWatch.

Customers are downsizing

Bryan Davis, founder of Teddy Stratford, a New York City-based company that makes tailored dress and casual shirts for men, said that in recent months, plenty of his longtime customers have suddenly started ordering shirts two sizes smaller than usual. orders that it made him think about what prompted the change.

“Because we’re an e-commerce company, we can see our customers’ unique purchase history, and we monitor that for irregularities to reduce returns and exchanges,” Davis told CBS MoneyWatch. “We’ve seen many of our customers order one or two sizes up.” less than they have done before.

Of course, Davis can’t be sure that diet pills are driving the pattern—the company doesn’t survey customers about their use of the drugs. But he suspects that the increase in GLP-1 is behind the trend. “We didn’t know why this was happening but it makes perfect sense. Our customer generally has a higher salary and they could certainly afford Ozempic,” he said.

About a third of weight-loss consumers surveyed by Morning Consult said they were buying new clothes more often compared to the period before they started taking the drugs, said Nicki Zink, the company’s vice president of research.

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

Insights from Impact Analytics, a retail forecasting firm, also show that enough customers are downsizing for retailers to take notice. The company studied sales patterns in stores on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, which it identified as the epicenter of nondiabetic GLP-1 drug use.

Compared to 2022, sales of women’s shirts in sizes XXS, XS and S increased by 12% in 2024, while sales of shirts in sizes XXL, XL and L decreased by 11%. The change will force retailers to adapt to the consumer side, according to Impact Analytics.

“America’s lengthening will have a huge impact on retailers and could cost them approximately $20 million each year due to incorrect sizing processes. These losses will only accelerate as more people take GLP-1 drugs for weight loss,” Impact Analytics Founder and CEO Prashant Agrawal said in a statement.

Hip cloth fabric

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Americans gravitated toward comfortable, baggy and sometimes hideous clothing like sweatpants, O’Donnell of market research firm Kantar said she’s recently seen a consumer shift toward stretchy, body-hugging fabrics, as well as styles like dresses with bodies that show each user’s hugs.

“It has built-in body positivity. It says, what shape are you, let’s see it. It also gives a lot of flexibility, compared to the blue jeans I bought 10 years ago that were cotton, heavy, and I had to have an exact fit on the jeans to feel comfortable in them,” she said.

Eating out is down, exercise is up

The Morning Consult survey of more than 4,400 US adults, conducted in November 2023, also found that 38% of GLP-1 users said they had exercised more often since they started taking the drugs. It 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 cook at home more often than eating in restaurants, probably because it gives them more control over the ingredients they consume, as well as portion sizes.

Morgan Stanley research analysts also found that survey respondents said they exercised more after starting to take obesity drugs. The proportion of respondents who said they exercised weekly doubled from 35% before medication to 71% after.

Morgan Stanley equity research analyst Brian Harbor explained the link between the drugs and exercise, saying in a research note: “…perhaps when patients lose weight, they simply feel both physically less and mentally motivated to exercise more to compensate for the gains.” they are seeing off weight loss drugs.”