Cold wave gives boost to clothing retail

Since last week, when temperatures in São Paulo came to stay below 5° C, consumers fill the stores Decathlon, sporting goods and clothing. Sales last week and this week are 300% above the volume in the same period last year, says Cedric Burel, President of Decathlon Brazil.
The heated demand led the retailer to change the supply of stores, which happened to have daily delivery of one to two trucks of winter products at each point of sale, such as jackets, gloves and other items usually used to practice of mountaineering and skiing. Typically, the distribution is weekly. "The company didn''t trade action out of the ordinary. What motivated the flow of customers was the cold snap, "said Buruel.
The Decathlon was not the only retailer to benefit from the autumn colder than usual in the Southeast and South of the country. In the clothing sector, sales of autumn and winter collections have shown better performance than the summer collections, according to Edmund Lima, Executive Director of the Brazilian Textile retail Association (Abvtex). The entity gathers the main networks sets in the country, as CeA, Forever 21, Hering, Marisa, Renner, Restoque, Riachuelo and Zara.
"The fashion retailers were able to undertake a new pace of sales from may, with the arrival of the cold," said Lima. He considered, however, that the winter collections represent around 30% of the total of items in stores during this period and the improvement in demand still does not offset the shrinkage by the clothing sector in recent months. "The trend is that the volume of sales in May and June be similar to last year," he added.
The Reneka reported that its sales of winter apparel products are 50% higher this month compared to the same period last year.
The Lupo was another clothing company that offers increased sales since May. Caroline Pires, commercial and marketing director of Lupo, said sales at retailers increased by 16% last month compared to may 2015. Orders from retailers to own brand products, in turn, grew by 80% compared to last year, with the companies '' interest in replacing imported. In the franchises of Lupo same-store sales (units open more than 12 months) increased by 8.5% in May. In June, the increase was from 27% to date. "In this last Saturday we serve 82 1000 people in stores, with 65% made purchases. It was a record for the period, "said Carolina.
In an interview with Value in may, the President of CeA, Brazil Paulo Correa, said the collection of autumn-winter came having a "very positive" response from consumers. Sales of winter items stumbled in the Indian summer that took almost the entire month of April, but "at the end of that month the trend changed and we can see some recovery." He added that the level of promotions is lower this year. Sought, Renner, Riachuelo, Marisa and Cia. Hering refused to comment on the sales performance.
Marcelo Prado, Director of the consultancy Iemi market intelligence, says the prolonged cold tends to exert an effect relevant to the thread. "The expectation is that the retailers can sell stocks that were stopped and can box for the summer collection," said Prado. The analyst considered that even with better result in the second half, the retail clothing should close the year with 3% drop in the volume of sold pieces nominal 4.3% increase in revenue and industry inflation below 7%.