More than 2700 stores in the British clothing industry closed in the first half of the year

This year, Britain's clothing industry has had a bad time. In the Chinese market, Martha's, New Look and TOPSHOP are losing ground. Overall, according to a recent market survey report by PwC, UK retail entities are facing the hardest time in nearly a year. In the first half of this year alone, more than 2,700 retail stores in the UK have declared bankruptcy. In addition, recently, ASOS, known as the forerunner of fashion e-commerce, also suffered a decline of more than 40% due to its poor performance.
Before ASOS“ Flash” many retailers had signalled that business was difficult. Mike Ashley, chief executive of Sports Direct International PLC, a major shareholder in Debenhams PLC and owner of House of Fraser, said more bluntly last week that on the eve of the Christmas season, the retailer would be defeated this year. However, when ASOS, known for its steady and high growth, also encounters challenges, it breaks the market's illusion of strong immunity to pure e-commerce, showing that British retail & ldquo; catastrophe & rdquo; has swept the online and offline markets indiscriminately.
According to No Fashion Chinese. com, ASOS announced a sharp drop in its annual performance outlook as sales growth slowed down before the holiday season. Share prices plunged by more than 40% to their lowest level since January 2014. It is reported that ASOS fixed exchange rate retail sales grew by 12% in the first quarter of FY2019, from 24% in FY2018.
According to relevant forecasts, the number of Christmas shopping malls in Britain this year will show the largest decline since the 2008 economic crisis. Under the pressure of online competition and high cost, it is expected that this year's & ldquo; Christmas & rdquo; business street traffic will fall by 4.2 percentage points from last December & mdash; & mdash; this may also be the biggest recession since 2010.
In terms of physical retailing, the market survey report released by PricewaterhouseCoopers said that in the first half of 2018, more than 2 700 retail stores in the UK had declared bankruptcy, reaching an average of 14 stores per day. At present, there are about 200 shopping malls in the UK which are facing difficulties in operation and are likely to close down at any time. According to the report, in the first half of 2018, 2692 shops were closed in the top 500 malls in the UK, while only 1569 new businesses were opened. The total number of businesses in the malls decreased by 1123. The report also showed that clothing and electronics retailers were the biggest bankrupts in the current wave of retail failures in the UK; in the first half of this year, the top 500 fashion stores in the UK reduced 104 businesses and electronics products by about 40 stores, but the number of supermarkets, ice cream, bookstores, stationery stores and cafes increased.
In fact, the retail industry has entered the cold winter since November. In November, business street traffic in Britain dropped 3.2 percentage points from last year, reaching its lowest level in nearly a decade. Data from the British Retail Association showed that trading volume was not optimistic on Black Friday in November. Primark, Britain's third-largest clothing retailer, said sales in November were sluggish due to a drop in customers. Retail industry analyst Nick & Middot Buber believes that Primark as one of the fashion industry model, this trend will hit the entire industry. Two other British companies, Ted Baker and John Lewis, have also released disappointing data on “ Black Five & rdquo.
Diane Middot, an analyst at Springboard, a sales research firm, said: & ldquo; the chaos caused by de-Europeanization has plunged retailers and consumers into the greatest degree of uncertainty in recent years. Diane Willer predicts that this uncertainty will continue until early 2019, when the British Parliament's draft withdrawal vote is over. For some retailers selling high-end goods, if the de-EU agreement is rejected, consumers may choose to consume in advance now to ease the inflationary pressure caused by the de-EU.
It is worth noting that the sharp fall in ASOS share price has also been the trigger for European retail concerns. On the same trading day, H& M, the Swedish retail giant, fell 9%; Adidas, the German brand, fell more than 5%; M& S, the old British store, also fell by about 5%; and the overall European Stoke 600 retail index fell by nearly 3%, reaching 2016. It's a new low since June.