The Impact Of Epidemic Situation On French Garment Industry

A series of factors, such as online shopping, low-cost brand competition and consumers' low purchasing desire, have made clothing chain stores more and more trapped in the epidemic situation and the accompanying economic crisis. Camaeu, Le hall, Andr é, NaF NaF One after another familiar brand stores filed for bankruptcy. Experts predict that the size of the French clothing market will be reduced by nearly a fifth this year, and it will be difficult to recover to the level before the epidemic in two or three years.

"Le Monde" reported on August 12 that Paris, the capital of fashion, can be seen everywhere with "shop transfer" window. The gap store on the Champs Elysees Avenue has been closed since January, but no one is willing to take over. The Italian brand napapijri store on Rue de Rennes on the left bank of Paris has been closed, and the opposite shop has been vacant, and the door of Andr é is also locked One by one, fashion shops in the heart of Paris closed.

Rodolphe DeVeaux, President of Armand Thiery group, a French 100 year old clothing brand, predicted that more stores would close. "It's like a disaster."

The passenger flow dropped sharply

During the ban period, offline stores were unable to do business, and after unsealing, their business activities were restricted by epidemic prevention regulations. According to IFM, sales of clothing accessories fell by 16% in May and 18.9% in June. Despite the discount that began in July, the number of customers in the business center has decreased by 16%.

In the commercial center, customers can only follow the same direction, and can no longer "linger" in the store as before. Even if they like the clothes, it is difficult to find a fitting room.

41% of Paris businesses surveyed by CCI believe that the epidemic prevention measures are the reason for the reduction of passenger flow.

Based on the statistics of its 600 Armand Thiery stores across the country, devo found that the number of customers in the commercial center has dropped by 60%, and the stores in the city center have lost 40% of the customers. Devor estimates that sales at stores this year are at least 30% lower than when they were on sale last summer.

The French Chamber of Commerce and industry (CCI) conducted a survey of 300 businesses in Paris, and 79% of them said the promotion results were "very disappointing".

Consumer's desire to buy declines

In fact, consumers are not as eager to buy as they used to be. H é L è ne Janicaud, director of research at Kantar, a marketing consultancy, says many people tidy their closets during the ban and find that they don't need to buy new clothes at all. Of course, the most important thing is that many people have to choose "partial unemployment", which leads to the decrease of income.

Online shopping, cheap brand competition

In addition, clothing chain stores are also faced with online shopping and low-cost clothing brand competition. Contrary to the situation in stores, online sales of clothing products increased by 22% and 67% in April and may, respectively. Another example is the self operated low-cost clothing brand of lidl in Germany, which is sold in 1550 stores in France, accounting for 2.5% of the national clothing market, twice as much as the online platform Amazon.

As a result, Armand Thiery's president, dewar, is not optimistic about the future. He believes that "the future will only be more difficult.". By 2023% this year, Hermes will be able to recover to the level of 19% in the insurance market.