Fast fashion will recover in 2022, with e-commerce becoming an important driving force

Fast fashion has had a rough few years, but has received good news recently .

Although some clothing brands have reported poor financial results due to supply chain issues, large fast fashion brands such as H&M, Zara and Uniqlo are starting to return to pre-pandemic levels .

Last September, Zara's parent company Inditex said its second-quarter sales had surpassed pre- pandemic revenues, up 7% from 2019. In the following third quarter, its sales rose 10% at constant exchange rates compared with the same period in 2019 .

At the same time, Uniqlo's parent company Fast Retailing released its first-quarter financial report for fiscal year 2022. Its overall revenue and profits were higher than those in the same quarter of 2019 , mainly due to growth in regions such as North America, Europe and Southeast Asia.

This is due to the fact that many countries have reopened to varying degrees in 2021, which means more people need new clothes. However, another reason supporting the growth of fast fashion sales is the growth of e-commerce business for many companies .

While some retailers don’t disclose how much of their sales come from online versus in-store, many industry insiders point out that the brands’ online business continues to accelerate.

Inditex said, "The strong growth in online sales we saw last year will of course continue in 2021." Although Fast Retailing did not disclose specific e-commerce sales for this quarter, it said that digital sales in North America increased by 70% last quarter . "In e-commerce, we are accelerating and promoting our core business by integrating online and physical stores," Fast Retailing said in its latest financial report .

Similarly, H&M did not disclose e-commerce sales in its most recent financial report , but disclosed in July last year that e-commerce sales in the first six months of 2021 increased by 40% year-on-year.

In addition to the epidemic, the increasing competition from startups may have also played a role in the growth of these companies' e-commerce businesses . For example, S HEIN replaced Amazon as the most downloaded app in the United States in 2021. At the same time, the downloads of apps of brands such as H&M , Zara , and Uniqlo have also increased to varying degrees.

Fast Fashion

E-commerce

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