Analysis on the Growth of Clothing Retailing in the First Half of 2012

The clothing retail market rebounded in the second quarter and failed to reverse the decline in the entire first half of the year. According to statistics from the China National Business Information Center on 100 major large-scale retail enterprises across the country, in the first half of the year, the overall sales growth of the domestic apparel market was only 9.82%, which was a significant drop from the previous year's 21.81%. However, starting from the second quarter, clothing retail sales began to rebound.

Although the overall sales growth of the apparel market in the first half of the year was not as fast as that of the same period of last year, sales rose significantly in the second quarter and maintained relatively stable growth. Compared with the beginning of the year, the gap between the growth rate of clothing sales in the second quarter and the same period of the previous year was significantly narrowed. According to the analysis, major shopping malls take holidays as an opportunity, and continuous promotion activities are the main reason for sales growth.

Data show that from January to June this year, the cumulative retail sales of apparel products increased by 9.82%. Although the gap was still about 12 percentage points from the same period of last year, it was significantly narrower than in January-February this year. It is worth noting that the cumulative increase in the retail sales of apparel products from January to June this year was only 0.99%. This means that the increase in the retail sales of apparel goods is mostly driven by the rise in apparel prices.

In the first half of the year, the accumulative growth rate of retail sales of apparel products was all above 20%. Although the growth rate has increased during the first half of this year, it has not exceeded 10%. A person in charge of a clothing brand believes that it is the lightest period in the industry in January-February. Although the current sales situation has improved, but has not yet seen the "warming up" hope.