Clothing Retailers In The United States Filed For Bankruptcy Protection For 3 Months, With A Net Loss Of 3 Billion 260 Million Yuan.

The impact of the epidemic on the global retail industry is continuing. Another large retailer in the US has said it will consider filing for bankruptcy protection. In Europe, fast brand ZARA parent company recently announced a large-scale closure plan.

The industry is expected to hit a new high this year by closing stores in the US, affected by the epidemic.

In the face of the crisis, the retail industry is also starting to sell online, hoping to withstand the cold winter of the industry.

The US retailer, who is facing the risk of bankruptcy, is called tailor Brand Company Tailored Brands, which owns the largest number of men's clothing brands in the United States. The company has recently said that if the epidemic continues to suppress sales, it may have to file for bankruptcy protection.

At present, the company has only opened half of its stores in North America. Coresight Research predicts that the total number of stores that the United States has closed may hit a new high this year, ranging from 20 thousand to 25 thousand, of which about 55% to 60% are located in US stores.

The retail crisis is not only in the US, but in Europe, Inditex, the world's largest apparel retailer and ZARA parent company, has announced plans to close 1000 to 1200 stores by 2021.

The company's latest earnings report showed that it had a net loss of 409 million euros (about 3 billion 260 million yuan) from February to April, compared with a profit of 734 million euros (about 5 billion 850 million yuan) in the same period last year.

Faced with the industrial crisis caused by the impact of the epidemic, retailers are relatively unanimous to deal with the issue of force online sales. The ZARA parent company announced that it would invest about 3 billion dollars to promote the online operation of its chain brands at the same time announcing the closing plan. It hopes to increase the proportion of online sales from 14% in 2019 to 25% in 2022.

To a certain extent, the epidemic is like a catalyst, which accelerates the development of online sales. However, it is hard to get the retail industry to return to normal on the line alone.

On the one hand, the proportion of online sales is not big enough in the European and American markets; on the other hand, the delivery costs during the epidemic increase greatly, and many retailers return even more than 50%, coupled with increased competition, pushing up the overall cost. Besides the improvement of online channels, the most important concern of the industry is demand.

Anisa Sherman, a senior analyst at a retail research firm in the United States: the most critical variable that we need to wait and see is demand. Our analysis finds that social isolation measures will not become a bottleneck. Even the most stringent social isolation measures, if there is demand, the storefront can still get enough traffic to maintain the normal level of sales before the epidemic.

After the lifting of the blockade, the performance of many retailers ushered in a relatively strong rebound. What needs to be further watched now is whether the recovery of consumer confidence and consumer demand can be speeded up. This is particularly important for the restoration of the whole industry.