Covid-19 had a significant impact on most industries throughout the world, but the focus of the impacts has lied in food and essential supply distribution. Fashion sales and production have changed too; though it might not seem as impactful. In some ways, the pandemic has hurt the clothing industry. However, it has also helped in a number of ways.
Money was tight for many while businesses were closed or small businesses struggled to stay open. When funds are scarce, luxury expenses are the first to go, meaning if you had clothes, you weren’t going out to buy more. Department stores were also closed for several months. This impacts more than just the store and the workers of the store; the people that produced the clothes are not seeing the income from their products. Anyone that released a clothing-line right before the widespread shutdowns likely paid the price.
Online shopping saved the day. For the people that were working from home, still making their normal salaries, there was nothing better to do to pass the time than shop online. Where cash was not being spent on dining or movie tickets, it was often spent on the online clothes stores. Shoppers were likely to spend even more online as there are often hundreds of pages to flip through in an online closet.
Though some skeptics are unlikely to purchase clothes that they can’t try on in a dressing room first, the overwhelming number of packages delivered this year suggests that most people don’t mind at all. Fashion may continue to do most of its business online, even when life is back to normal.
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