In today’s top retail news, H&M indicated that 80 percent of its 5,000 global stores had currently opened up again from pandemic-related closures, while more U.K. consumers are turning to social media platforms to do their shopping. Plus, factory and retail industry activity jumped in China in January and February.
Global Apparel Giant H&M Says Sales Snap Back As 80 Pct Of Stores Have Reopened
H&M reported Monday (March 15) that 80 percent of its 5,000 worldwide stores had opened up again from pandemic-related closures, marking an ongoing rebound in sales and earnings that have been hard hit by the pandemic. Sales in U.S. dollars for the three months concluding Feb. 28 were down 27 percent from a year ago, per an announcement from the apparel store chain. The decline was a bit better than the 30 percent drop that investors and analysts had been expecting when the official first quarter results are released at the end of March.
UK Consumers Opt To ‘Shop Socially’ Amid Brick-And-Mortar Closures
More British consumers are turning to TikTok, Instagram and Facebook to do their shopping as a means to avoid the protracted pandemic-related store closures throughout Europe, per new research. According to research from Mastercard, 43 percent of respondents indicated that they are “social shopping” more now than a year ago. Instagram seemed to be the favorite destination for U.K. social shoppers, with 92 percent of consumers indicating that they had bought products there in contrast to the 39 percent who had purchased items via Facebook.
Retail, Manufacturing Activity Exceeds Expectations In China
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Factory and retail industry activity soared in China in January and February, exceeding expectations. National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) figures showed that industrial output jumped by 35.1 percent in those two months from the prior year. In addition, retail sales surged by 33.8 percent. However, an NBS representative cautioned in a published report that “COVID-19 is still spreading around the world and global economic conditions are complex and severe; domestically, the imbalances of the recovery are still quite obvious.”
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