Corona crisis leaving fashion retailers short of their winter collections
The coronavirus crisis has meant that fashion retailers are being left short of part of their winter collections. The daily ‘Gazet van Antwerpen’ reports that the closure of ports in India and China due to upsurges in coronavirus infections has meant that thousands of tonnes of clothing destined for our high streets and shopping malls is remaining stuck at quaysides.
Under normal circumstances winter collections are delivered to stores in Europe at the end of August and the beginning of September. However, many suppliers have now put off delivery until the end of October.
While the delays won’t lead to shortages of clothing in the shops, they are bad news for the fashion retailers. They had hoped for strong sales during the autumn in order to help make up for poorer sales during the previous seasons.
Isolde Delanghe of the fashion retailers’ federation Mode Unie told VRT News that “After three poor seasons due to corona, during which turnover was down 30%, we had hoped for a relatively normal autumn. We see that consumers feel like shopping again. We have a very nice collection to offer them, and we of course hope that it won’t be delivered too late. Because the later its delivered, the more difficult it will be to sell, of course”.