Textile Industry Affected by Covid-19 Epidemic Situation
At the beginning of 2020, a sudden outbreak of COVID-19 has cast a shadow over the global economy. In this environment, the textile industry has also suffered a severe impact. The International Textile Manufacturers Federation and the International Garment Federation jointly issued a report to study the impact of COVID-19 epidemic on the global textile and garment industry.
The sudden outbreak of COVID-19 has caused an unprecedented impact on the demand of clothing market. In order to avoid the concentration of people, many governments require stores to close, resulting in a 100% drop in turnover. In areas where there is no mandatory requirement to close clothing stores, the government also calls on people to keep social distance and stay at home as much as possible. McKinsey reported that the turnover of physical clothing stores in Europe dropped by 30%-40%. In areas with severe epidemic, the turnover dropped by as much as 80%. And online sales can't make up for such a huge loss of offline sales. Online sales remained basically stable, and some e-commerce platforms experienced a 5%-20% decline.
Faced with the sudden drop in sales, many brands and retailers canceled their orders. In Bangladesh alone, as of 17:00 on March 29th, a total of 1,025 factories reported 864 million pieces, and orders worth $2.81 billion were cancelled, affecting the employment of about 2.06 million workers. The negative impact of zero sales quickly spread to the whole industry chain. Dishonest purchasing is also common. Brands either give up suppliers directly or try to face the crisis through deeper cooperation. The International Clothing Federation has publicly condemned the unethical purchasing behavior caused by the spread of COVID-19 epidemic, and called on the industrial chain to unite to face the crisis. In fact, what is needed under the crisis is that buyers/retailers and their manufacturers, as well as manufacturers and their suppliers, need to adopt more creative ways to solve the negative impact of the economic downturn on the whole industry.