According to the survey, 65% of retail property owners believe that the new crown has led to a drop of more than 85% in the mall's passenger traffic, and nearly 30% of the owners' malls have temporarily ceased operations.

 

"Ice Age" still has a long road

 

Affected by the epidemic, the apparel industry has been hit hard. In order to reduce losses, major brands have closed their doors. Burberry, Nike and other nearly half of Chinese mainland stores have closed. Vans parent company has closed 60% of Chinese stores. Prada, Moncler Other brands also choose to close some domestic stores, offline sales will drop significantly, and some brands have adjusted their revenue expectations in a timely manner.

 

The relevant person in charge of the Possden company told reporters, "The epidemic is sudden, and the impact and pain on the textile and apparel industry are obvious, mainly manifested in the inventory problem caused by the decline in consumer demand, the production pressure caused by the delayed resumption of work and recruitment, and the epidemic. Due to the impact of the global spread on the foreign trade market, many apparel companies are in trouble due to insufficient production capacity and sluggish market demand.

 

Affected by the outbreak, domestic and foreign apparel companies have entered the "glacial period."

 

According to the customs statistics newsletter, in the first quarter of this year, the country’s total apparel exports totaled US$22.557 billion, down 20.6% from the same period last year. Sports goods giant Adidas recently released the first quarter of 2020 financial report. The financial report shows that due to the outbreak of sports goods, it has caused a serious negative impact on the company's operations. As of the first quarter, its net income from continued global operations has dropped by 97 %, more than 70% of the stores are still closed; GAP Group is also affected in the offline business, and many brands have appeared to close stores;

 

Speed ​​up the industry's "digitalization" transformation

 

After the darkness, most brands have begun to find new ways to embrace "digitalization".

 

InditexSA, the owner of Zara, said the company will permanently close up to 1,200 of its stores and move more aggressively to online sales. After the outbreak of the disease, this fast-fashion tycoon is planning for future development, its size is equivalent to 16% of the number of stores in the world.

 

Zara's stores and online sales fell 51% year-on-year in May, and from June 2 to June 8, this number fell by 34%. In response to this situation, the company said that the main reason for the decline in turnover was that the people stopped going out and the stores were suspended.

 

In the end, whether it was hit, or under the impact of the outbreak, following the trend and accelerating the transformation, there is obviously a logic behind ZARA closing the store. At first glance, the unexpected decision is behind another plan.

 

In fact, online shopping has disrupted physical stores long before the outbreak of the disease hit the physical retail store by pressing the pause button, and focused on physical brand chain stores. Prior to this, ZARA had realized that online marketing had become the only way to break the brand deadlock, and had begun to focus on online sales.

 

To accelerate the transformation of ZARA, Inditex Group will invest 1 billion euros in the online platform business and 1.7 billion euros in the integration of the store platform. ZARA plans to invest 64,000 square meters of online live broadcast in the headquarters before the end of the year to support the development of the electronics industry.

 

In April's data, ZARA's online sales increased by 95% over the same period last year, and in the first quarter of this fiscal year, its sales increased by 50%. Taking this opportunity, ZARA took the outbreak as a breakthrough, made efforts to sell online, and planned to open high-end stores, which is also a kind of self-help.

 

The point of view turned to Japan. In this trend of digital transformation, the fastest growing one should belong to the fast fashion brand Uniqlo.

 

As a mass apparel brand for all ages, Uniqlo’s digital transformation is particularly important for its subsequent development. Chairman Liu Jingzheng once specifically pointed out that companies must transform into “digital retail companies”, that is, from design, production, manufacturing, and sales. Digitization must be introduced into the way all employees work.