China's garment retail market continued to maintain a rapid growth in 2011.
However, this growth mainly came from a high increase in retail prices of apparels and not from rise in volumes.
In 2011, retailers clocked an average value-wise growth of more than 20 percent in sales of clothing, but volumes grew by just 4.36 percent.
This was revealed in statistics on consumer goods market in 2011 released by the Chinese Chamber of Commerce and China National Commercial Information Center.
In 2011, branded apparel prices of key retailers rose 20.3 percent year on year, 1.2 percentage points higher compared to 2010.
However, sales volume of garments increased by only 4.36 percent from 2010, the lowest growth rate since 2001.
The increase in prices made up for 79.9 percent contribution to the growth rate of retail sales.
The rapid rise in clothing prices, especially the accelerated growth of branded apparel prices brought greater pressure to consumer apparel consumption.
On the other side, global apparel retailers like ZARA, H&M, C&A, GAP and Uniqlo continued to ramp up their retail footprint.
Store count of these retailers grew rapidly and they also tended to open outlets in Chinese tier II and III towns and cities.
Among them, Zara & H&M opened around 80 percent of their stores in tier II and III Chinese towns.
Fibre2fashion News Desk - China
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