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TOKYO (BLOOMBERG) – The unusually long and cool rainy season in Japan has dampened demand for clothing, furniture and other goods, with some retailers already reporting sharp declines in merchandise sales.
Shimamura, a chain of affordable clothing stores, announced last week that its comparable store sales through July 20 have dropped 18% from the previous year. A large number of Shimamura customers travel by bike instead of visiting the company's 1,433 Japanese sites. Rainy days therefore have an inordinate impact on income, said a spokesman.
So far, Tokyo has only had about 44 hours of daylight in July, one of the least important since the Japan Meteorological Agency started keeping records in 1890. There was a Sunday less compared to July 2018, and the rainy and overcast sky also seems to hold. people at home, especially on the weekends.
Given the fact that Japanese retailers, especially Uniqlo's Fast Retailing operator, are sensitive to seasonal trends, they are likely to report lower monthly sales next week, said badyst Michael Allen. at Jefferies.
"All clothing retailers should have suffered," Allen said in a report, adding that the average temperature from July 1 to 25 was 22.7 ° C, compared to 28.3 ° C a year earlier.
Right On, a garment-making company with 495 stores and an online store, has announced a 5.9% drop in its store sales until July 20, reflecting weak demand of summer clothes. Furniture retailer Nitori Holdings reported a 5.6% decline in comparable store sales in the same period, as fewer people purchased bedding and other seasonal products. Representatives of Nitori and Right On declined to comment.
The meteorological agency has not yet declared the end of this year's rainy season. Last year's season was exceptionally short and officially ended on June 29 for the Kanto region, which includes Tokyo.
The cold weather has hindered the demand for summer outfits such as short-sleeved shirts and women's underwear, said Shimamura.
United Arrows, which has more than a dozen fashion brands, may have been able to mitigate the impact of the weather because a fifth of its sales are online, said a spokesman. Some customers are also buying fashion items earlier this fall, regardless of the recent temperature, she added.
"While the rainy season in July could affect customer traffic in the physical stores of clothing manufacturers, buyers have likely switched to online shopping," said Catherine Lim, an badyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.
"The impact on global sales of large companies with an established e-commerce platform such as Fast Retailing could be less severe," she added.
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