The nationwide lockdown being implemented to curb COVID-19 spread has hit Indian fashion and apparel sector hard with sales recovering just 35 per cent that of January levels. Latest Redseer Consulting data reveals, fashion sales in January stood at $7 billion, or $85 billion annualized with the steepest dip reported in April when sales reached only 10 per cent of January levels. Sales by offline retailers, including those from organized brick-and-mortar stores, fell around 4 per cent to 88 per cent by mid-June. Online retailers also failed to match pre-COVID-19 levels even though their sales increased 11 per cent over the last six months.

Demand to revive by festive season

The fashion industry can only hope to bounce back around the upcoming festive season, says the chief executive of a top fashion brand. According to him, the industry’s reliance on a few online channels is not expected to bring the desired results. Cut back on spending on non-essential items may also lead to weaker sales, say analysts. More than 50 per cent consumers plan to cut down on their discretionary purchases, including fashion, in the next six months, opines Mrigank Gutgutia, Director, Redseer Consulting and Research.

Though brands are taking several measures to woo consumers, these have failed to lift demand says Harminder Sahni, Founder and Managing Director, Wazir Advisors. According to him, sales are unlikely to recover for the entire year as COVID-19 cases are rising every day.

Safety protocol for apparel retailers

Retailers and brands are seeking a standardized safety protocol for apparel to boost sales, says Arvind Mediratta, Chairperson, Retail and Internal Trade Committee, FICCI. This protocol will help retailers by certifying their apparels as safe for consumers.

These retailers are also employing disabling features like cash on delivery which are helping them to control returns and exchanges by 50 per cent. However, they need to build virtual trial rooms to help customers check how the cloth looks on them, views Rameswar Misra, Cofounder, Turms.

Post pandemic, fashion and apparel has become one of the fastest selling categories online. Held last month, Myntra’s flagship sale event recorded about 3.5 million customers with more than 10 million items being sold in just four days. Even though customers are currently stocking essentials, they will get back to shopping apparels, once they get back to work, believes Abhishek Ganguly, Managing Director, Puma India. And this will lead to a growth in offline sales as was evident from the recent pick up in traffic at the newly reopened stores.

The business of Indian retailers declined by 67 per cent during June 15-30 compared to the corresponding period last year, according to a survey by Retailers Association of India (RAI).

In its latest business survey conducted on more than 100 big and small retailers, RAI said there has been no significant growth in business for retailers even during the second half of June.

During this time, malls witnessed 77 per cent degrowth (year-on-year) on account of not being allowed to open uniformly across the country, high street retail showed degrowth of 62 per cent in business despite being allowed to open across India.

Large size retailers (sales of over Rs 300 crore) witnessed a degrowth of 59 per cent and small retailers ( less than Rs 300 crore sales) witnessed a decline of 69 per cent.

Region wise, West with a 74 per cent drop and North with 71 per cent decline continued to suffer the most, while East and South witnessed 62 per cent fall in sales each.

The online edition of India’s biggest garment fair for domestic garment manufacturers will be organized from September 02-11, 2020.

As per the Clothing Manufacturers Association of India (CMAI), organizer of the show, the 71st edition of National Garment Fair (NGF) is re-evolved and re-invented to keep industry ahead of fashion trends and overall business opportunities.

To make the show successful, CMAI is approaching prospective participants effectively through various ways. The show used to take place twice a year in January and July. The July edition of the event used to take place in the first or the second week of the month. The 4-day-long July edition last year had over 1,000 exhibitors from across India and around 40,000 visitors including retailers, corporate buyers, wholesalers, agents, distributors, etc. visited it.

In India, so far in the textile and garment industry, Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts (EPCH) has organised two virtual sourcing shows but they were mainly for export. It will be interesting to see how the domestic market gains from a virtual show.

High-street shopping destinations in metros like Delhi, Bengaluru, Pune, Kolkata are staging a quicker recovery than malls for retailers, says a survey by the Retailers Association of India (RAI). Stores in locations such as Connaught Place in the capital, Indiranagar in Bengaluru, Mall Road in Ludhiana, MG Road in Pune and Park Street in Kolkata are currently reporting higher sales than their counterparts in malls.

This is mainly because it is more convenient to visit a store in Connaught Place than negotiating the umpteen number of temperature checks and sanitization tunnels at malls, said a CEO of a global fashion brand. Multi-point checks, closure of entertainment units such as cinema halls and restaurants are keeping most people away from malls which are witnessing 15-30 per cent footfalls compared to pre-COVID months.

Also, the visit time to a store is shorter than to the mall said a senior executive at Pavilion Mall in Ludhiana. As a result of this, large sized retailers performed better at high street than at malls in June.

The Indian government has introduced a new ecommerce policy draft which plans to appoint an e-commerce regulator to make the industry more competitive which could directly impact Amazon and Google’s India operations. The policy draft was prepared by the ministry of commerce’s department for promotion of industry & internal trade.

The proposed rules also mandate government access to online companies’ source codes and algorithms, which would help ensure against digitally induced biases by competitors. The draft would ensure the use of artificial intelligence by these companies.

According to the draft, the government, in consultation with relevant stakeholders, will define the categories of e-commerce that would require mirroring or localization. E-commerce companies will have to make the required available to the government within 72 hours, which could include information related to national security, taxation and law and order.

The draft policy also mandates e-commerce platforms to provide consumers the details of sellers, including phone numbers, customer complaint contacts, email and addresses. For imported goods, the country of origin and value of work done in India need to be clearly specified.

Also, foreign e-commerce companies providing live streaming services that use payment tokens need to be regulated to ensure that users route such transactions through formal and regulated payment channels.

Mumbai-based SOCH Group has launched the first of its kind omni-channel sales platform ‘This or That’ (ToT) wherein a startup brand can showcase its products and reach out to their customers. It offers an experience, in which physical shopping and digital technologies interact with each other.

The group, which has so far been funding this platform via internal accruals, has planned to look for no further funding for the next two years. It aims to tap at least 70,000 companies by 2023 and a seven-fold growth in the next 10 years.

The group believes that this new initiative has an edge over others as startups are bringing in new innovations and uniqueness which are somewhere missing among the products manufactured by bigger outfits.

ToT will launch with 250+ brands onboard ranging from industries like fashion & lifestyle, food & beverages, beauty & wellness, furnishing & décor, sports & nutrition.

ToT is also bringing back the satisfaction of bargaining for its customer. It also encourages them to order product samples for free and lets a customer try and compare products before they can purchase.

The Work from Home trend has boosted the sales of PJ’s in India with knitwear exporters receiving advance payments from European buyers to replenish their stocks for the basic clothing

Demand for daily essential clothing is more from Europe, which has opened up for a long time. There is very good export demand for kids wear, night wear and inner wear. The retail stores are running low on stock demand for fast fashion clothing is still sluggish, said Ashok Arul, CMO, SCM garments, an exporter to leading retail stores of Europe and US.

Tirupur in Tamil Nadu, which exported knitted garments worth about Rs 30,000 core the previous fiscal, has started getting good export business. Raja Shanmugam, president, Tirupur Exporters Association (TEA) noted a growing demand for night wear, children wear and inner wear.

Global e-commerce giant Amazon India’s stake in Kishore Biyani-led Future Retail, which runs the Big Bazaar chain, has reportedly come as a stumbling block for billionaire Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Retail's plan to acquire a controlling stake in the retail businesses of Biyani’s Future Group.

In 2019, the Jeff Bezos-led American online behemoth had acquired a 49 per cent stake in Future Coupons, a promoter entity which holds 2.72 per cent in Future Retail. The deal gave Amazon an indirect stake of 1.3 per cent in Future Retail, that Reliance Retail is reported to be eyeing.

Furthermore, Amazon—the world's largest online retailer—has the first right to acquire Biyani’s complete holding in this company in three to 10 years from November 2019, when the transaction was approved by the Competition Commission of India (CCI), India's antitrust watchdog. While this right can only be exercised after November 2022, Biyani seems to cut his debt quickly, which stands at Rs 12,778 crore for the Future Group as a whole.

Last year, the US-based online retail major in partnership with private equity firm Samara Capital had acquired Aditya Birla Group’s More food and grocery retail chain. At present, the government norms restrict foreign direct investment (FDI) in retail, Amazon employed a rarely used class of shares to buy 49 per cent stake in Witzig Advisory Services, a joint venture company with Samara.

Retailers in smaller Indian cities are likely to see business recovery sooner than those in metros thanks to the limited impact of the lockdown, migration to smaller cities and better rural income, says a report by analyst Motiwal Oswal Financial Services. According to the report, demand in smaller cities could return to normalcy by the festive season in October-November. However, overall revenue in FY21 could be lower by 20-30 per cent. Retailers expect a full recovery over the next six to nine months.

In fact, regional retailers in smaller towns are seeing footfall at 50-60 per cent of pre-COVID levels. In cities where the Coronavirus cases were limited, consumers are returning to stores, indicating pent-up demand. The report said sales were already in 60-70 per cent of pre-COVID levels as now, only serious buyers are turning up. Currently, customers are purchasing low ticket size essential products. However, the kids wear segment has seen a spike in sales, while demand for wedding clothes has dropped sharply.