Although The Retail Sales Of Japanese Clothing Increased Year On Year In May, It Still Did Not Recover

　　 (source: China Textile Import and Export Chamber of Commerce) To prevent the spread of the epidemic, the Japanese government implemented the third state of emergency from April 25 to June 20. During the implementation of the state of emergency, large-scale commercial facilities were closed down, the target area was expanding day by day, more stores were forced to close or shorten the business hours, the passenger flow and purchasing power slowed down, which also had a negative impact on clothing retail.

The fourth state of emergency aggravates the downward risk

Japan's real GDP is expected to return to its pre epidemic level by the end of the year, according to the private economic forecast released by the Japan Economic Research Center on July 8. As vaccination progresses, consumption will recover and exports will also play a role. Affected by the third emergency declaration, personal consumption declined from April to June, but will maintain growth after July to September. Due to the deterioration of the epidemic situation, several regions of Japan entered the fourth state of emergency in July, with the period from July 12 to August 22, which will undoubtedly increase the risk of economic downturn.

Clothing: no obvious signs of recovery

In May, Japan's textile and clothing retail sales increased by 17% year-on-year, and the recovery momentum slowed down significantly compared with the previous month. In the first five months, the cumulative retail sales of textile and clothing in Japan was 3.4 trillion yen, which was basically flat on a year-on-year basis, and still maintained the low state when the epidemic broke out last year.

Compared with that in 2019, Japan's textile and clothing retail sales decreased by 29% in May, and the cumulative retail sales in the first five months still dropped by 25%, showing no obvious signs of recovery.

Department stores: Retail decline continues to expand

In May this year, the clothing retail sales of Japanese department stores increased by 80% year-on-year, and the accumulated retail sales in the first five months increased by 12%. The growth rate was slightly expanded, but it was mainly due to the low base last year, which was not enough to show the rebound of clothing consumption.

Compared with the same period in 2019, the retail sales of clothing and apparel in department stores decreased by 53% in May, and the cumulative retail sales in the first five months decreased by 26%, both of which were significantly expanded.

Large supermarket: difficult to return to normal level

As one of the important channels of clothing sales during the epidemic period, clothing retail of large supermarkets was relatively less affected by the epidemic, but the impact continued to exist, and it was difficult to recover to the normal level. In May this year, the retail sales of clothing and apparel in large supermarkets increased by only 1.3% year-on-year, a sharp drop compared with the previous month. From the cumulative situation in the first five months of this year, the retail sales of clothing and apparel were basically flat on a year-on-year basis, and the market remained depressed.

Compared with the normal level in the same period of 2019, the retail sales of clothing and apparel in large supermarkets decreased by 29% in May, and the accumulated retail sales in the first five months decreased by 19%, and the overall situation remained sluggish.

Main retailers in May

UNIQLO: down 0.6%. The number of customers increased by 19.2%. Due to the extension of the state of emergency and the expansion of the target area, the number of customers decreases day by day. The dissemination of information on new products is minimal and appears to be decreasing compared with 2019. UNIQLO will close its first global flagship store in Osaka's shinzakibashi on August 1, affected by a drop in visitors.

Island Village: "fashion center island village" increased by 31.2%. The number of customers increased by 31.9%. Brand and influencer planning coordination programs developed with suppliers are effective by creating sales floors and distributing videos. It is 0.1% higher than that in 2019.

Adastria: up 28.5%. The number of customers increased by 9.4%. Compared with 2019, the whole store sales decreased by 27.1%“ Global work, Niko and, Lowrys farm and repsim are relatively strong.

United arrow: up 27.5%. Compared with 2019, the whole store sales are still down by more than 30%. There are still shops closing, especially in Osaka. Affected by the impact of not going out, the motivation to buy new products seems to be weak. The number of workers increased by 10.4%. The number of customers increased by 9.1%. Women's trousers, dresses and other women's clothes sell well.

Right on: up 32.5%. Both the number of customers and the unit price of customers have achieved double-digit growth. Compared with 2019, it is 21.5%. It is said that the number of customers will not rise easily. Jeans are strong, but summer items like shorts and T-shirts don't perform well.

Honeys Holdings: up 31.5%. The number of customers increased by 38.5%. Summer merchandise sales are good, but lower than in 2019. The delay in recovery is said to be greater than expected.

Good products plan: food sales increased by 18.4%, clothing and groceries decreased by 1.8%, and household goods decreased by 17%.

Department store: Isetan Sanyue is 4.9 times more than the whole building closed from April 8 to May 29 last year. Sogo & Seibu rose 2.2 times. Matsuzaka department store in taimaru was up 80%. Takashima rose 60%. Osaka, which has a core store in Osaka, grew by 1% and near rail by 11%. The sales of Meitian and harukas in Sakai and harukas in Abe were 35%, 22% and 19% respectively.

Compared with that in 2019, the sales volume of sakazaki department store decreased by 70%, that of Sanyue Isetan and matsumosaka decreased by 50%, Takashima house by 40% and SOGO & Seibu by 30%. In the Shinjuku headquarters of Isetan and the Japan Bridge headquarters of Sanyue, the number of customers decreased by 70% compared with that in 2019, and the sales volume decreased by 50%. High priced items such as watches and luxury brands performed strongly. Gaodaowu specialty clothing and groceries doubled year on year, but decreased by 20% compared with the same period in 2019. Clothing increased significantly compared to the previous year, but decreased by 60% to 70% compared with 2019. Irregular sales systems with different target areas and different deadlines required to close and shorten working hours had an impact.