Plus Size Clothing Is Disappearing From Stores While the Market It Serves Keeps Growing
The global plus-size clothing market is valued at roughly $302-340 billion in 2025-2026 and projected to keep growing at a 7%+ annual rate. At the same time, major retailers are visibly cutting extended sizing: Target's online extended-size assortment for women fell 37% from March 2025 to March 2026, and Old Navy's plus-size options dropped 12% year over year, with some stores reportedly removing plus sizes from shelves entirely. Retailers point to shifting demand tied to GLP-1 weight-loss drug adoption; plus-size shoppers say the market is shrinking around them just as it's supposed to be growing.
Who has this problem
Plus-size shoppers wanting affordable everyday basics in-store
Not luxury/DTC-brand shoppers, who are already well served online — the underserved segment is mass-retail, in-person shopping.
Shoppers who want to try on before buying
People for whom cuts to in-store ranges, with full ranges kept online, remove the fitting option.
Shoppers outside big cities
Customers with only local mass retailers, where Target has cut extended sizes 37% online.
Workwear shoppers
People who need extended sizes for a job and can't wait for shipping and returns.
Signal timeline
Gallup finds GLP-1 weight-loss drug use among US adults climbed from 3% (2024) to 8% (2025) to 11% (May-Jun 2026, n=5,065) — a roughly fourfold rise in two years — alongside a decline in Gallup's own self-reported obesity rate from a 39.9% peak in 2022 to 37% in 2025.
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