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Fashion discounts up 43% as retailers prepare for what could be “record-breaking summer Sales”

Tom Bottomley
19 May 2020

UK fashion retailers hit hard by the shutdown are preparing for “the biggest summer of discounting” in years, as online retailers have already begun offering 43% more fashion discounts year-on-year, with an increase of 13% week-on-week.

The latest year-on-year sales comparisons are from May 11 – May 17, 2020, versus the same week in 2019. And week-on-week comparisons are from May 11 – May 17, 2020, versus the previous week.

Retailers are in desperate need to sell excess stock and are planning to offer unprecedented levels of discounting to shoppers this summer, according to the latest Lockdown Report and data from LovetheSales.com.

Stuart McClure, co-founder of LovetheSales, said: “The pandemic has hit retail hard. Initially, China's shutdown meant chaos for orders and deliveries of goods that led to delays in arrival to the UK, and this meant reduced selling time for those goods. Then, stores closed in the UK, meaning further loss of opportunity to sell. Whilst e-commerce has seen a bit of an uplift, it's not anywhere near enough to offset the loss of physical sales. Retailers have an ever-increasing volume of inventory they need to sell. This can be seen in the data we are tracking on our marketplace.

“We're already seeing a huge surge in sales online, and we'll see the same in store when they re-open. Under the circumstances, retailers find themselves in, we expect this to be a record-breaking summer Sales period for retail discounting.”

Clothing and fashion accessory categories so far seeing the bigger year-on-year rises in discounting are handbags at +88%, jeans at +66%, dresses at +64%, T-shirts and vests at +56% and swimwear at +50% year-on-year.

Demand for high street brands hit a five-year low for May, down -145%, while demand for luxury brands was up +32% and demand for premium brands fell -2%.

Professional stylist, Jessie Stein, said of the data: “Many shoppers I speak to don’t want the hassle of returning low value items, whilst stuck inside. High street brands thrive on a buzzing high street, where shoppers can try before they buy with ease. The lockdown has stopped a lot of impulse buying for cheaper, ‘wear once’ type clothing.”

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