Chinese clothing retail sales surge in 2010

31 Aug '10

2 min read

In the first seven months of this year, total clothing retail sales of nationwide 100 major retailers increased 26.9 percent year on year, 15.3 percentage points higher than the growth in the same period last year and also reached the highest level since 2007.

Data showed that over the same period total apparel retail sales volume of these 100 large-scale retail enterprises gained 12.9 percent year on year, 7.5 percentage points higher than the growth of last year, and also 1.7 percentage points higher than in 2008.

Data showed that over the same period, the growth rate of apparel retail sales value was far higher than the growth of total retail sales volume, meaning a considerable part of the growth in retail sales was achieved from price increase by apparel companies.

To ease cost pressures, many domestic clothing brands have raised their prices in the first half of this year. XStep's semi-annual report reveals that the average price of its apparel products increased by 13.9 percent in the first half; Anta's semi-annual report showed that its apparel product prices increased by 7.1 percent in the first half.

According to industry sources, the industry will continue to face rising labor costs, high raw material prices and other unfavorable factors, apparel retail prices are expected to increase further with the arrival of autumn and winter.

Fibre2fashion News Desk