Retailers find some comfort in winter wear

NEW DELHI: In a year when fashion retailers saw their inventories pile up amid the pandemic, the colder and prolonged winter spell in the North has given them some comfort — at least on the winter-wear front.Fashion and lifestyle retailers including US Polo, Uniqlo and Levi’s are on track to sell almost all of their winter-wear stocks this season, and will be left with very little or no inventories to carry forward into the next fiscal year.“There has been a strong business momentum as we progressed month-on-month with the dip in temperature,” a Uniqlo spokesperson said in an emailed response. “December sales were 50% more than November and more than 300% of October sales.”Fashion retailers generally sell up to 60-70% of their winter items by late November or early December, and liquidate most of the remaining inventory in the end of the season sales in January. However, this year they had already sold up to 85% of winter clothes by November itself and are now left with limited winter products to sell through discounts in the ongoing sales season.“Winter wear did very well for us and we sold most of our winter wear in November itself,” said J Suresh, managing director of Arvind Fashions that sells brands including US Polo Assn, Flying Machine and Aeropostale.While sales of other clothing items are still hovering around 70-75% of last year’s levels, warm clothing have already clocked about 85% of last winter’s number, retailers said.As a consolation after the pandemic disrupted the business most of fiscal 2021, the winter started early and is still helping fashion retailers to generate business of big-ticket winter items.

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