Apparel retail sales in Japan has gone down by 40 per cent in the first half of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019,says recent data by Japan Department Stores Association (JDSA). The decline has been noted both in the first quarter from January-March of 2020 as well as in the COVID-19 hit quarter April-June. A monthly surge can be seen from mid-May onwards, as the state of emergency was lifted in stages in the entire country from May 14, 2020 before being ending fully on May 25, 2020.

As a result, growth in June ’20 over May ’20 was overwhelming, which signals a significant number of shoppers have come out to purchase apparels post-pandemic. The yearly decline shows lingering fears of infections in the country amongst majority of fashion shoppers. Monthly surge of 217 per cent was massive in June ’20 over May ’20 which is a clear indication that rebounding of apparel market post-outbreak has started. In COVID-19 affected quarter from April-June ’20, Japanese apparel sales revenues declined 66.81 per cent to $1.27 billion. Sales in January-March ’20 quarter declined 22.30 per cent to $3.28 billion from the same period of 2019.

Revenues earned from women’s wear in Q2 ’20 was valued at $ 817.24 million, a decline of 66.42 per cent from Q2 ’19 and 60.14 per cent from the preceding quarter of 2020 when it accommodated $2.05 billion. Menswear clocked in $290.40 revenues in COVID-19 hit quarter April-June ’20, while January-March ’20 could collect $709.25 million from its sales.

June ’20, sales in kidswear fell 7.40 per cent over June ’19. However, a monthly surge of 49.66 per cent was recorded in kidswear sales in June ’20 over May ’20.

Americans have increased their retail purchases by 1.2 per cent in July, with gains in appliances and clothing boosting sales to pre pandemic levels. Sales at retail stores and restaurants have now risen for three straight months, after plunges in March and April, when the pandemic shuttered businesses and paralyzed the economy.

Still, much of the spending was fueled by government aid that had put more money in people's pockets but has since expired. With Americans' income now likely shrinking, economists expect a drop in spending and a potential weakening of growth. Economists forecast growth rebounding in the July-September quarter at roughly 20 per cent annual rate, though that pace would still leave the economy far below pre-pandemic levels.

The government's figures mask a huge shakeout in the retail industry, with Americans pulling sharply back on in-person shopping and spending more online. More than 40 retailers have filed for bankruptcy protection this year, about half of them since the pandemic. That's about double the number for all of 2019.

Many retailers had been ailing before the pandemic. But analysts envision another wave of retail bankruptcies in coming months that would include some companies that were financially healthy before the virus struck. In recent weeks, Ann Taylor's parent company declared bankruptcy. So did the Lord & Taylor department store chain and the discount store chain Stein Mart, which had been in business for 112 years.

British and European luxury brands — hoping to duck out of the crossfire of the Airbus-Boeing trade fight — are requesting he Trump administration to adjust the 25 percent tariffs set on many luxury goods imported to the US

Washington raised the import tariff on certain high-end goods from Europe to 25 percent, hitting cashmere knitwear, merino wool and Savile Row suits hard and in retaliation for subsidies paid to manufacture the Airbus fleet of planes. The move was sanctioned by the World Trade Organization and the US has the right to review and tweak the tariffs, which could go as high as 100 percent, every 180 days.

The EU, which has accused the U.S. of aiding Airbus competitor Boeing, might also retaliate with tariffs of its own on U.S. made goods.

Beth Hughes, Vice President-Trade and Customs Policy, American Apparel & Footwear Association, said this dispute has already caused a negative impact on the industry. This retaliation only hurts those American workers by raising costs, costs which are passed on to U.S. consumers in the form of higher prices, which, in turn, lowers sales.

The Chinese government reduced tariffs on products imported from Bangladesh under its Preferential Tariff Program—a move that dates back to items imported from July 1. Now, nearly all Bangladeshi products (97 percent) will see reduced duties moving forward, up from 60 percent prior to the news.

According to China Briefing, a publication produced by professional services firm Dezan Shira and Associates, China will now give duty-free export benefits to an additional 5,161 products from Bangladesh, bringing the number of exempted products to 8,256. That total includes items that are admissible under the Asia Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA).

Exporters in Bangladesh have enjoyed the bulk of these duty-free benefits since 2010, the publication said, with items like jute, plastics, raw hide, skins, frozen fish and crabs, live eels, sesame seeds and cotton waste products being the most popular imports to China. But despite the duty benefits that the country has enjoyed over the past decade, China Briefing reported that exports haven’t shown substantial growth.

Export Promotion Bureau data shows that during the 2014-2015 fiscal year, total exports to China amounted to $791 million. By 2019, that number had only increased to $831 million. By May, looking back at the fiscal year that began in July 2019, exports amounted to $557 million.

However, there’s one area that is trending positively: ready-made garments. Due to loopholes created by a clash between APTA and China’s Preferential Tariff Agreement, the incentives offered by each agreement aren’t synchronized. Those issues actually present an area of opportunity for Bangladeshi exporters looking to bring clothing to the Chinese market.

The Seam, a leading provider of food and agriculture software solutions and Qualified Data Management Partner (QDMP) with Field to Market, has developed the Trust Protocol. The platform includes a mass-balance chain of custody model and a bale registration and verification process that digitally links cotton production to the sustainability profile of the producer. Over the past 35 years, U.S. cotton has made significant improvements in growing cotton responsibly.

Brands and retailers can join the US Cotton Trust Protocol, a new system for responsibly grown cotton that will provide annual data for six areas of sustainability in line with the U.N. Sustainability Goals. This year-over-year data, available for the first time, will allow brands and retailers to better measure progress towards meeting sustainability commitments.

The Trust Protocol underpins and verifies sustainability progress through sophisticated data collection and independent third-party verification. By working with Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture and Control Union Certifications North America, the Trust Protocol enables brands and retailers to better track the cotton entering their supply chain. Brands who become members of the Trust Protocol will have access to aggregate year-over-year data on water use, greenhouse gas emissions, energy use, soil carbon and land use efficiency.

The Trust Protocol is a complement to existing sustainability programs and is designed from the ground up to fit the unique cotton mass-growing environment of the United States.

According to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the sales of Lotte, Shinsegae and Hyundai department stores in the first half of the year fell by 14.2 percent compared to last year.

Galleria Department Store, which has comparatively more international high-end fashion labels at its branches than its competitors, was the only franchise that showed a sales increase between January and June, recording 4 percent.

Lotte recorded a 16 percent sales drop, followed by Hyundai and Shinsegae with a respective 10 percent and 7 percent.

Galleria only operates five outlets around the country and it has been focusing on attracting the "superrich" in different regions.

In September last year, it opened a separate facility outside its Daejeon department store for VIP customers only called ‘Maison Galleria.; The store invited selected customers and exclusively introduced them to its latest luxury items.

Shinsegae also collaborated with Louis Vuitton to promote the men's fall and winter collection, for the first time, at a pop-up store in it Gangnam branch July 31. The branch previously opened temporary boques for Prada in January, Chanel in June and Bottega Veneta last month.

Current USDA estimates show global cotton consumption in 2020-21 down is likely to decline by 15 per cent. The 2020-21 world production forecast remains unchanged, and COVID-19’s negative impact on cotton demand was too late in the season to shift planting decisions away from cotton for most major producing countries. This has pushed the stocks-to-use ratio back up into the 90 per cent range.

The US department of agriculture (USDA) Outlook in February of 2020 projected that 2020-21 would be similar to 2019-20, with modest consumption growth and a modest decline in world stocks. Then COVID-19 spurred record downward adjustments to global cotton demand.

Looking ahead, with government support programs in the two largest producing countries—China and India—shielding producers somewhat from price volatility, lower prices will have limited impact on global production.

According to the Deloitte Global Millennial Survey 2020 found that younger generations including both Millennials and Gen Z have had values, including sustainability, reinforced during the pandemic. While half of the millennial and Gen Z respondents said they believe it is too late to repair the damage caused by climate change during the company’s initial survey taken late 2019 and early 2020, a pulse survey conducted later in 2020 found a more hopeful response due to the pandemic’s environmental impact.

A pulse survey found that almost 30 percent of Gen Z and a quarter of younger millennials have lost jobs or have been put on temporary, unpaid leave due to COVID-19. This demographic has also experienced a change in work including working fewer hours or longer hours without a raise in pay. Only a third of millennials and 38 percent of Gen Z respondents said their employment or income status had been unaffected by the pandemic.

Overall, the report found a pessimistic view from respondents as it pertained to personal financial prospects. More than half of respondents expected their finances to stagnate or worsen over the next year before the pandemic, an increase from previous surveys. Further, almost half of Gen Z and 44 percent of Millennials told Deloitte they felt stressed all or most of the time during the initial survey, but the pulse survey saw anxiety levels fall eight points for both generations. According to the authors of the report, this decline in stress levels suggests resiliency and indicates a positive side effect of the pandemic.

Vietnam surpassed Bangladesh in exporting readymade garments (RMG) during the first five months of the current calendar year, industry insiders said. Bangladesh, however, remained the second largest apparel exporter after China in the last calendar year of 2019, according to World Trade Organization (WTO). Vietnam exported apparel worth US$10.50 billion in January to May of 2020 while Bangladesh's RMG exports during the same period stood at US$ 9.68 billion, according to data compiled from different sources.

Apparel exports from both the countries, however, declined during the period due to the coronavirus outbreak.

In 2019, Bangladesh exported $33.63 billion with a share of 6.83 per cent of the world market followed by Vietnam with $30.56 billion or 6.21 per cent of the global market.

China remained the top apparel exporter to the world. China fetched $151.58 billion, 30.81 per cent of the global market last year. During the January to May last India fetched US$4.68 billion followed by Cambodia with US$3.28 billion, Pakistan US$2.12 billion and Sri Lanka US$1.61 billion, data showed. In January, Bangladesh exported apparel worth $3.03 billion while it earned US$ 2.78 billion and $2.25 billion in February and March 2020 respectively. But in April, Bangladesh apparel exports fell to only $374.64 million and in May it stood at $1.23 billion, data showed.

On the other hand, Vietnam's RMG exports were $2.47 billion in January, $2.22 billion in February and $2.33 billion in March. In April, Vietnam fetched $1.60 billion while $1.86 billion in May last, according to data.

Industry insiders said that the issue needed to be taken into account that Vietnam factories didn't have to close factories like Bangladesh for a month. As Vietnam is Bangladesh's main competitor for the second position, they said with FTA in EU market Vietnam will be in a very good position.

The ongoing pandemic has led to many innovations in the apparel industry as brands have introduced new clothes and accessories that supposedly stop viruses. Diesel launched a new range of antiviral fabrics that disables over 99 per cent of viral activity within two hours of contact. Similarly, London-based Apposta launched a fabric for dress shirts’ that claims to reduce the speed of contaminations, transmissions by destroying bacteria and viruses on contact.

Fashion companies believe antiviral clothing is the next big innovation in the industry. As consumers have reduced apparel spending by almost 30 per cent this year, retailers are using every trick in the trade to lure them back to stores. McKinsey and Business of Fashion’s ‘State of Fashion Coronavirus Update’ says antiviral clothing is one of the many ways retailers are trying to woo shoppers back. Diesel is using Swedish firm Polygiene’s fabric treatment to stop viral activity in fabrics while Swiss firm HeiQ uses Silver to destroy viruses.

Complications due to regional regulatory discrepancies

Mats Georgson, Chief Marketing Officer, Polygiene points out, the term anti-viral fabric has been made more complicated by regional differences in regulation. Europe has separate standards for fabrics labeled antibacterial or antiviral, while US labels only medical products as antiviral fabrics. Other fabrics are labeled antimicrobial, which means though they pass antibacterial tests, they do not necessarily kill viruses.

Labeling a fabric as antimicrobial can bring legal problems for brands. Hence, brands need to be careful before making any such claims, says Susan Scafidi, Founder and Director, Fashion Law Institute, Fordham University's School of Law. US government agencies like the Federal Trade Commission and Environmental Protection Agency are looking out for more such questionable antimicrobial claims.

Treatments induce behavior changes, control waste

Sarah Ahmed, Chief Executive Officer, DL1961 and Warp + Warp believes, fabric treatments can induce long-term behavioral changes amongst consumers and make clothes more clean and appealing. As of October 1, the brand plans to treat all its new products with an antiviral chemical softener from HeiQ. Georgson says, antiviral treatments can also help control water waste by convincing consumers not to wash their clothes as frequently, much in the same way antibacterial treatments have for activewear.

Diesel has also invested in the Polygiene treatment. Massimo Piombini, CEO says, the brand has an exclusive licensing deal on denim in combination with an anti-odour chemical, to make customers’ lives easy during a complicated time. However, as Lucy Shea, CEO, Futerra opines, fashion brands offering antimicrobial treatments should not use this as the next fashion craze but be careful while creating clothing items using this technology. For keeping their consumers healthy, they can use other simpler design innovations, like T-shirts with built-in masks.