Top 5 WGSN Alternatives (2023)

WGSN is not the only platform for tracking fashion, beauty, and lifestyle trends.

If you’ve looked into it, you may already know that it’s a pricey offering designed for established industry players and global brands with massive budgets.

However, several good WGSN alternatives are available if you’re looking to stay ahead of trends in your industry.

We’ve compiled a list of the best of them, which we’ll cover in detail below.

1. Exploding Topics

Unique Selling Point: Find and get ahead of trends before they explode.

Exploding Topics gives you the power to know which trends are about to take off in whatever industry you’d like to follow.

While WGSN is limited to the world of fashion, beauty, and lifestyle, our trend data spans several categories, including software, fitness, eCommerce, technology, startups, and more. As a result, you can use it to gain a broader view of trends across industries that may prove valuable to your business.

How does it work? Our AI monitors social media platforms, online marketplaces, customer forums, news outlets, podcasts, streaming sites, and more to pinpoint early indicators of new trends.

Then, our expert human analysts review these trends, looking only for opportunities that show signs of long-term interest and business value. Our team analyzes and verifies every trend that makes it into our database, so you know you’re working with high-quality trend data.

Let’s look at a few of its features.

1. Discover & research trends (Free)

This free feature allows you to search the trends database for any growing trends based on keywords.

While you won’t have access to every topic unless you become a Pro member, there are still many topics to explore. And you can filter by time frame and category if you want to hone in on your search.

2. Perform high-level and collective trend research with Meta Trends (Pro)

Available to Pro members, Meta Trends is the tab on your dashboard that allows you to track overarching, related trends rather than just one specific trend at a time.

The above example for antioxidant skincare shows not only a cluster of related topics but also a list of related meta trends to explore in the same vein. If you’re coming from the fashion, retail, or beauty industries, this could prove useful for categories and brands within your field.

3. Get weekly trend reports sent to your inbox (Free)

This free feature is one that you can sign up for right now. Every week, our team sends out a new curated list of the best exploding topics right to your inbox, complete with expert insight and analysis.

All you need to do is sign up once and then check your inbox every Tuesday to see what’s trending.

4. Save trends on your dashboard (Pro)

Got a topic you want to keep a close eye on? As a Pro member, once you find a topic, you can click “Track Topic” as you research to revisit it later. Then, you can create folders or “projects” under which you can file different trends.

When you’re ready to return to your saved trends, they’ll be there for you, and they’ll be updated on a daily basis.

5. Monitor growth and set alerts (Pro)

You’ll soon be able to use our platform to set push notification alerts for when topics you follow start rapidly growing.

Our trend-tracking tools make monitoring trend growth on your schedule easy so you can act on opportunities when the time feels right for your business.

Exploding Topics also has an API to connect our platform with other market research software and consolidate trend data in the analysis and reporting tools you use in your daily operations (you can learn more about that here).

Pricing

Exploding Topics Pro has three tiers: Entrepreneur, Investor, and Business. You can start a 14-day trial for any of these for just $1.

2. Trend Hunter

Unique Selling Point: Sleek interface and a broad range of industries.

Trendhunter is another option allowing you to track trends across a wide range of industries. That being said, there are currently over 110,000 articles under the fashion tab alone, making this solution one of the more comprehensive options on our list.

This platform offers trend reports, a sleek weekly newsletter, and the ability to search its database (though limited in the free version). With the pro version, you can access things like the dashboard, consumer reports, customizable tools, and powerful filters that allow you to drill down and get specific in your searches.

If you’re interested in learning more about entrepreneurship and the strategy behind it, you should check out the Innovation Strategy page for practical, real-life stories from inspiring entrepreneurs from all walks of life.

They also offer specialized services like workshops, custom research, and more,

Key takeaways

• Comprehensive
• Innovation Strategy resources
• Customizable tools to track trends

Pricing

• $199 per month when billed annually for pro

Why you’d look for an alternative

$199 per month can be steep for smaller businesses or solo entrepreneurs. There are more affordable options that have similar functionality.

3. TrendWatching

Unique Selling Point: Research trends plus get a library of private workshops

TrendWatching is a custom solutions provider built around the Trend intelligence platform, Amplify. Its trend-tracking capabilities are a lot like the earlier entries in that trends can be researched and tracked as you wish.

This firm typically partners with larger businesses or universities, but they do offer affordable pricing plans for students and non-profits, in case you fall into one of those categories.

Users note that they are impressed by the number of educational resources included with their subscriptions. It’s called TrendWatching Academy, and there is no shortage of useful information within, all of which is built around trend data, including corporate keynotes, and workshops.

One thing that makes TrendWatcher stand out is that your subscription includes a dedicated analyst assigned to you in case you have any questions or need some guidance.

Key takeaways

• Dedicated analyst
• TrendWatching Academy
• Affordable options for students/ non-profits

Pricing

• Unavailable unless you speak with a sales rep.

Why you’d look for an alternative

Compared to other WGSN alternatives, TrendWatcher has a bit of a steep learning curve and can still be pricey unless you’re a student or a nonprofit.

4. Google Trends

Unique Selling Point: Track regional trends powered by Google.

When it comes to fashion, beauty, and lifestyle products, location and region information can play a critical role. Google Trends is perfect if you’re looking to search for trend activity worldwide or within a highly localized region.

You can see how often people are searching for a particular term and how the results compare across different regions. You might even be able to see how a trend physically catches on and spreads from region to neighboring region.

With Google Trends, you get regional data, topic analysis, and a system that is updated in real-time. It’s easy to compare multiple topics at once to see their performance across regions, and, if you’re so inclined, you can export topic and region data directly to a CSV.

Key takeaways

• CSV data export
• Region-specific data
• Topic analysis
• Related queries

Pricing

• Google Trends is currently free to use

Why you’d look for an alternative

Google Trends is free but lacks some of the more robust features of the other platforms. It’s also not necessarily designed to predict which topics will take off in the future.

5. Trends.co

Unique Selling Point: Track trends amongst a strong, supportive community.

Trends.co is dedicated to helping entrepreneurs and business owners find big business ideas they can pursue and, according to their website, launch within a weekend.

What really sets Trends.co apart from other WGSN alternatives is the simple fact that it’s built around a strong community.

When you sign up, you’re opening up the door to interact with like-minded entrepreneurs. Maybe the person you connect with is your next business partner, investor, or retail marketing specialist.

In fact, there are already more than 16,000 members on Trends.co, so if you’re interested in keeping up with trends as part of a community of driven entrepreneurs, this might be the solution for you.

To provide an example from a case study, the members of Trends.co offered some guidance to one man and his peanut butter business. After shifting the focus of his business, the company went from netting $60,000 in 2019 to over $1,000,000 in 2020.

Key takeaways

• Strong community
• Extensive resource database
• Ready-to-launch business ideas
• Trial option for $1 to start

Pricing

• $1 to begin trial for one week
• $299 yearly

Why you’d look for an alternative

Users of the platform have said the $299 yearly price of membership isn’t justified when the resources are somewhat generic.

Conclusion

Now that you know the 5 best WGSN alternatives, you can make a more informed decision that better suits your business. When applicable, try and take advantage of the free trial versions to see how they work for you. You should be able to learn a lot in a short amount of time and choose the right one for your needs.