The stocks of Zara-owner Inditex are likely to plummet if COVID-19 cases continue to surge across Europe and result in a second set of government-imposed lockdowns.

The stock could also come under pressure if its half-year (H1) earnings fail to impress investors on Wednesday 16 September.

In its first three months of trading, most markets of the group imposed restrictions on the operations of stores, which resulted in 51 per cent decline in sales. However, the retail fashion group remains confident of positive outcome in its upcoming results.

All high street fashion retailers like Inditex, Next and Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) have struggled significantly amid the coronavirus pandemic as lockdowns have wiped out sales from physical stores. However, the prices of online-only retailers like Boohoo and ASOS continue to move higher with online fashion is set to triple this year, accounting for around 23 per cent of all European sales in 2020.

The Trump administration has imposed new restrictions on import of apparel, hair products and technology goods from certain Chinese companies alleging these entities use forced labor in the Xinjiang region to make their products. These restrictions allow US customs agents to detain and potentially destroy goods brought into the country that are made by the named companies or entities in Xinjiang.

The withhold release orders were announced by Customs and Border Protection They target all products made with labor from the Lop County No. 4 Vocational Skills Education and Training Center in Xinjiang, which provides prison labor to nearby manufacturing entities. The orders also restrict hair products made in the Lop County Hair Product Industrial Park, apparel produced by Yili Zhuowan Garment Manufacturing Company and Baoding LYSZD Trade and Business Company, cotton produced and processed by Xinjiang Junggar Cotton and Linen Company, and computer parts made by Hefei Bitland Information Technology Company.

Under this withhold release order, importers can bring their products into the United States if they are able to provide proof to customs that the goods were not made with forced labor.

A new report by India Ratings says, man-made fibers and yarn segments are expected to recover due to pent-up demand and strong export order build up in all the segments. The report states, both segments will benefit from the low raw material prices in the third quarter this financial year. Their volumes have improved to 50-80 per cent of normal levels in August, led by pent-up demand and strong export order build up in all the segments. However, plant utilization of pure man-made fibers and yarn manufacturers was severely impacted due to the lockdown.

Ind-Ra expects raw material prices to remain moderate in the second half of FY21. It expects fabric and apparel prices to decline in August, led by a quick supply restoration than demand recovery. It expects demand for home textile exports to sustain in 2HFY21 at healthy levels achieved over August-September. According to Ind-Ra, Indian players are likely to increase their already strong market share in terry towels and bed linens, led by supply chain diversification away from China.

A virtual ASEAN-India ministerial meeting recently reviewed the strategic partnership between the two regions. The first major interaction with ASEAN after India walked out of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the meeting reviewed the progress in implementation of the ASEAN-India plan of action (2016-2020). It also adopted a new plan of action for the next five years besides reviewing the preparations for the upcoming 17th ASEAN-India summit.

Ministers discussed ways to strengthen cooperation to fight the pandemic and exchanged views on important regional and international developments. India, China, South Korea, Japan, New Zealand and Australia are the six prominent members of the ASEAN. The RCEP was to be a free trade agreement among these six countries. However, India stayed away as it does not safeguard our interests. Indian analysts hope ASEAN will tilt towards the Quad (US-India-Australia-Japan) in the contestation of South China Sea. However, China has been resisting Quad’s efforts to raise bilateral ties with member countries.

Bangladesh is developing 500 new eco-friendly garment factories. The country certified 19 new units as eco-friendly in the first eight months of this year. This has increased the number of eco-friendly apparel and textile units in Bangladesh by around 125. There has been a spurt in green manufacturing units in Bangladesh following the infamous Rana Plaza building collapse, which highlighted the importance of a safe and secure working environment. As per BGMEA, there 144 facilities Bangladesh received the LEED certificate, of which 125 are garment and textile factories.

Among the factories that received LEED certificate this year included Avitex Dress Shirt, EMS Apparels, Mayble and Frank Fashions, Anwara Fashions, Nippon Garments Industries, Pacific Casual, Karooni Knit Composite Ltd. and Karupannya Rangpur.

Burberry plans to live video stream its Spring/Summer 2021 collection in collaboration with service provider Twitch. The brand will use Twitch’s unique Squad Stream function that will allow its hosts to stream the show together in one window. This will enable virtual guests to view the show from multiple perspectives. The collaboration with Twitch will allow the brand to engage with its community through curated content and experiences.

A global luxury brand, Burberry is headquartered in London and listed on the London Stock Exchange (BRBY.L) and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 index. Launched in 2011, Twitch is a global community that creates unique, live experiences through its interactions with millions of views. The community creates entertainment across a host of categories from casual gaming to world-class sports, sports, music and art streams.

With the direct-to-consumer model and digitization diminishing their importance, physical trade shows suffered even before the pandemic. A Business of Fashion (BoF) and MyKinsey’s State of Fashion 2020 report reveals, nearly 55 per cent brands and retailers view trade shows as having little or no relevance to their business. COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the relevance of these trade shows with all US B2B events in the second quarter either being cancelled or postponed, notes the Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR).

For visitors, these shows offer an opportunity to network with other exhibitors, and physically showcase products. To boost their future appeal, organizers will have to reinvent the organizational structure of trade shows, believes Julie Gilhart, Industry Veteran and Brand Consultant. Well-curated and localized trade shows will continue to attract visitors in the post pandemic world, she says.

Adapting to changing times

The success of modern trade shows depends on their ability to swiftly adapt to last-minute lockdowns and travel restrictions. Over the last few months, Premiere Vision made heavy investments in digital operations. Its online marketplace allows buyers and vendors to make virtual appointments and attend some 20 online educational seminars. It has also set up 1,600 online shops on the marketplace which exhibitors can operate free of charge.

On the other hand, Florence-based trade show, Pitti Immagine Uomo, charges €2,500 per season for customers to use its online platform Pitti Connect. Since the first four weeks of its launch, 500 companies, 6,000 buyers and 270 media professionals have used the Pitti Connect service. One of the largest players in B2B exhibitions and events, Informa charges exhibitors $1,995 to showcase collections in its online marketplace. The organizer aims to complement its physical events with digital operations, says Nancy Walsh, President, Informa Markets Fashion.

Eyeing more acquisitions

As the industry has become more competitive, bigger companies are eyeing smaller digital trade shows with a strong sense of branding and point of view. They plan to acquire more virtual events which enable them to display all their showrooms under one virtual roof and become a one-stop-shop for buyers, says Nancy Drapeau, President-Research, CEIR.

Informa’s Market Fashions offers many finished-product trade shows like Coterie, Magic and Micam Americas. The group’s eight-week digital marketplace, launched in partnership with NuOrder, allows buyers to filter searches through product keywords or the names of the trade shows they typically frequent.

Taking the mid-route

Pre-COVID, physical shows were the biggest source of revenue for Brand Assembly, a business platform started in 2013. The company’s multi-city trade shows made up 60 to 70 per cent of total annual revenue. Now, the share of these trade shows has declined below 50 per cent, says Hillary France, Co-Founder and Chief Executive. The platform has launched virtual marketplaces in collaboration with e-commerce firm Alkeon for established contemporary brands and emerging designers. Though currently free to use for brands and designers, these marketplaces plan to introduce a software-as-a-service model where customers will have pay a monthly or annual subscription fee to showcase their products year-round.

Organizers also plan to take the hybrid route for their events. Besides organizing physical events, these organizers plan to make huge investments in their online platforms to attract customers with customized shopping experiences. Though digital events are not so lucrative for these organizers, they help them become data-rich, says Walsh.

COVID-19 is revolutionizing GCC retail landscape with consumers increasingly embracing online retail channels, opined Hozefa Saylawala, Director-Sales Middle East, Zebra Technologies at a virtual roundtable organized by RetailME on Intelligent Orchestration of Retail Experience. As per Statista, an online tracker of global economy and retail sector, e-retail sales are expected to account for 22 per cent of global retail sales by 2023. Of this, the GCC e-commerce market is expected to reach $19.7 billion in 2020. Justina Eitzinger, Chief Operating Officer, RetailME views these statistics as an indication of the huge potential of e-commerce market in the GCC and the greater Middle East region and advises retailers and consumers to gain crucial insights from the virtual roundtable series to remain ahead of the curve.

A blessing by default

Adel Sajan, Director, Danube Group, which initiated virtual meetings with key customers and offered products through a virtual tour of its stores, says their online sales jumped up 500 per cent to make up 25 per cent of total sales during the lockdown. Recently, the group launched a pilot project to dispatch a wide variety of home furnishing products to clients' homes. This enables customers to see, touch and feel the products.

Bhavna Buttan, Vice President-Market Place Transformation, Sun and Sand Sports views COVID-19 as a blessing by default as it forced consumers and retailers to change their shopping behavior swiftly. The retailer accelerated the use of digital space during the period with online sales jumping 500 per cent. According to Ashutosh Chakradeo, Head-Retail, Choithrams, the biggest change is being witnessed by grocery retail, supermarkets and hypermarkets as their online sales have jumped almost three times. Choithrams managed to meet the growing demand for its products by making certain physical adjustments and upgrading technologies.

AI for a frictionless shopping experience

Mark Thomson, Director - Retail and Hospitality, EMEA, Zebra Technologies, views frictionless shopping experience to be one of the biggest challenges for the retailers currently. As a solution, Danube Group deploys artificial intelligence (AI) to interpret customer data analytics. This enables the group to zero-in products to suit customers' taste.

Though retailers are using customer data analytics to make decisions, they interpret them in different ways, observes Hozefa Saylawala, Director of Sales, Zebra Technologies. The industry can address this issue by providing decision-makers with automated action points. For instance, Zebra's retail technology solutions help the company track inventory and orders, and offer customers a better shopping experience

Liz Truss, International Trade Secretary, UK along with Graciela Márquez, Chairperson, Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) opened discussions between senior UK trade officials and chief negotiators from all 11 members of the partnership to discuss potential UK accession to CPTPP.

This is the first time the United Kingdom has met with these chief negotiators and the first time CPTPP members have had such a discussion with a country seeking membership since the partnership was created in 2018.

The United Kingdom held preparatory conversations with all CPTPP members. If the UK decides to apply, it will enter into a formal accession negotiation with all member states, a government press release said. This meeting follows major progress in negotiations between the United Kingdom and Japan, the beginning of negotiations with Australia and New Zealand, and the resumption of negotiations with Canada, as the United Kingdom looks to focus on trade with the dynamic Asia-Pacific region. CPTPP membership also provides an opportunity to expand trade links with key partners in the Americas.

The UK aims to join CPTPP because membership will help put the United Kingdom at the centre of a network of free trade deals with dynamic economies, making the country a hub for international businesses trading with the rest of the world; put it in a stronger position to reshape global rules and drive reform at the World Trade Organisation; boost its economic security; and make it more resilient to future crises by diversifying its trade and supply chains.

Fashion for Good has launched ‘Full Circle Textiles Project: Scaling Innovations in Cellulosic Recycling’ – a first-of-its-kind consortium project. Focusing on cellulosic fibers, the project aims to validate and eventually scale promising technologies in chemical recycling from a select group of innovators to tackle landfill and other issues.

In the project, leading global organizations—Laudes Foundation, Birla Cellulose, Kering, PVH Corp, and Target—join Fashion for Good to explore the disruptive solutions, with the goal of creating new fibers and garments from used clothing and ultimately drive industry-wide adoption. The project’s overall aim is to investigate economically viable and scalable solutions for cellulosic chemical recycling to enable a closed loop system converting textile waste – of cotton and cotton-blend materials, to produce new man-made cellulosic fibers (MMCF).

Over an 18-month period, project partners will collaborate with innovators, Evrnu, InfinitedFiber Company, Phoenxt, Renewcell and TytonBioSciences, to validate the potential of their technologies in this still nascent market. The recycled content produced by four of these innovators will be converted at Birla Cellulose’s state-of-the-art pilot plants to produce high quality cellulosic fibres. From there, fibers will move through the project partners' supply chains to be manufactured into garments. Given that InfinitedFiber Company produces industry-ready fiber through their process, their fiber will be delivered directly to the project partner’s supply chains for garment production. The project will provide an assessment of the innovator’s environmental impact, technologies, recycled output and subsequent garments.