Subscribe now! Get as
Nearly a month after Shanghai lifted its strict COVID-19 lockdown measures, fashion stores are stuck with piles of unsold pieces as cautious consumers stay away from the mall’s dazzling grocery shopping districts.
The city’s reopening this month saw a flood of goods shipped from warehouses to store shelves already loaded with unsold goods two months of closure. Normally, about one-fifth of all imported goods entering China pass through the port of Shanghai.
Days after COVID-19 restrictions eased, gigantic “sale” symptoms set in in Shanghai, with stores from Lululemon to Victoria’s Secret offering discounts to attract shoppers.
Even online stores have struggled with an overabundance caused by blockages and interruptions at the source.
“We were very moved,” said Josh Gardner, founder and general manager of Chinese marketplace e-commerce partner Kung Fu Data, which manages the online retail outlets of 10 fashion brands, adding G-Star Raw.
“In April, May on the (major e-commerce platforms in China), there were no t-shirts to find, summer stocks ran out and everyone too, there are just no products,” he said. “Now everyone is bleeding and trapped with a large amount of stock that they can’t move. “
China is a major market for luxury goods corporations with sales reaching $74. 4 billion in 2021, according to Bain.
One consulting firm estimated that “618” sales, a major industry event in China from May 31 to June 20, at major e-commerce sites such as Tmall and JD. com, were strong year-over-year.
During the opening week of the event, small data showed that menswear sales fell by 22% and women’s clothing sales fell by 4%, although sportswear sales increased by 26%, likely due to an increased focus on fitness during the lockdown.
For now, some stores are stockpiling their stock and ordering less for the fourth quarter, when they will sell existing stock through Singles’ Day in November.
“For the apparel category, due to the epidemic and slow consumption, there is a peak of stock accumulation of spring collections,” JD. com general manager Lei Xu said after the online retailer’s first-quarter results. “As a result, many factories are skipping their . . . summer collections”.
Flash sales specialist OnTheList, which sells products for brands such as Versace, Jimmy Choo and Lanvin at discounts of 70% or more, reopened its physical showroom in Shanghai last weekend with a sale of Salvatore Ferragamo.
The high-end Italian fashion logo and almost each and every store in Shanghai closed their retail stores in April and May. Salvatore Ferragamo declined to comment.
Jean Liang, managing director of OnTheList China, said luxury brands are now more open to online sales as well as offline sales, while cosmetics brands proactively look to sales to eliminate excess inventory.
“Before, it was us who asked them what their plans were and now they attack us, which means they have inventories that they have to erase to have a healthy inventory situation,” he said. OnTheList’s flash sales calendar, which runs each and every few days, is already booked until September.
Shipping products for distribution in Europe or America is another solution, but lately it’s confusing due to rising shipping and air transportation costs, said Benny Wong, supply chain director for Peeba’s online wholesale market.
“Now, the main impediment is the transportation matrix. . . which creates a huge advantage for the owner of the stock,” he said. “Inventory can kill (and) some product categories have a lot of stock to move. “
SUSPICIOUS CONSUMERS
A few weeks after reopening, retail confidence is depressed, and Shanghai consumers have yet to return to malls in significant numbers and customer footfall is similar to before in major downtown malls, according to retail staff.
Shanghai’s citizens are reluctant to return to enclosed public spaces, largely for fear of being locked up again, as China’s damn ZERO COVID policies require it every time new infections emerge.
A continued ban on dining in restaurants also means that malls remain without their same food and drink attractions.
Across China, retail sales fell 6. 7 percent in May from a year earlier, extending last month’s 11. 1 percent drop as a slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy discouraged spending.
“In terms of stock settlement, there is rarely a very smart solution in China,” said Kung Fu Data’s Gardner. “I mean, what are you going to do that will rarely destroy your brand?”
The Padma Bridge over the river of the same name in Bangladesh will be inaugurated today by the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina. According to local newspaper The Daily Star, “thousands of other people have joined a gigantic demonstration since early in the morning. . . “and collecting sports a “festive look. . . with colorful banners. . . singing songs and dancing. ” Some 3,000 leading figures were invited to the inauguration, according to the Daily Star report.
Tech giant Google on Saturday paid tribute to Holocaust victim Anne Frank and marked the 75th anniversary of the publication of her memoir, “The Diary of an Anne Frank Girl” with a doodle video. The doodle shows genuine excerpts from her diary, which describes what she, her friends and her circle of relatives lived while hiding for more than two years under the Nazi regime. Anne Frank was born on June 12, 1929 in Frankfurt, Germany.
Pakistan’s Higher Education Commission has now recommended a new way to reduce spending on tea imports. HEC says this resolution will not only create jobs, but also generate a source of income for the public in the context of the country’s existing economic crisis. One of the recommended measures includes the promotion of local tea plantations, as well as healthy and elaborated beverages such as “lassi” and “sattu”. Pakistan is facing a severe economic crisis in recent times.
The end of constitutional abortion protections in the United States on Friday emboldened abortion warring parties around the world, while abortion rights advocates feared it would threaten recent moves toward legalization in their country. “I hope that with this decision, it will be imaginable to abolish abortion in the United States and around the world,” said the anti-abortion president of Fundación Vida SV, activist Sara Larin.
Democratic leaders across the country pledged Friday to help women who have abortions and protect patients and medical professionals from government lawsuits in states where the procedure is banned after the U. S. Supreme Court ruled out the U. S. Supreme Court. On the West Coast, the Democratic governors of California, Washington and Oregon have released a joint “multistate commitment,” saying they will work together to advocate for patients and caregivers.
Customize your News Feed. Follow current issues