The year 2020 was one of the toughest years in history for every industry. The fashion industry was also largely affected which was marked by declining sales, changed customer behaviour and inter-rupted supply chains across the globe. This article looks at the various changes that were brought about by the pandemic and which may well continue into the future.

The world faced a huge crisis in the year 2020 in form of the COVID-19 pandemic, with industries facing their worst on record. Almost every industry is still in the midst of uncertainity, with reve-nues and margins under pressure [1]. The distorted economic activities have depressed apparel mar-ket demand [2]. McKinsey Global Fashion Index analysis predicted in 2020 that there will be two cases of recovery – “Earlier Recovery” stating that global fashion sales will reduce by 0-5 per cent in 2021 as compared to 2019 and by the third quarter of 2022, the industry would return to same lev-els of activity as it was in 2019. The second is “Later Recovery” which states sales will decline by 10 to 15 per cent over the coming year compared to 2019 and recovery of fashion sales will be in the fourth quarter of 2023. The pandemic increased demand for digital access to everything, which in effect has enabled innovation, efficiency and new ways for businesses to scale up. It has also em-phasised the need to move to more sustainable and responsible working ways. Digital channels will be the primary driver of growth in the coming years as people will remain reluctant to mass gather-ing. It is expected that industry players will see deep and long-lasting changes to both consumer demand and ways of working. Amongst potential short-term challenges, brands will have to shift their focus towards casualwear and there will be continued pressure on luxury, as well as shorter production cycles and cash constraints that will lead to slowdown in investments.[1]

New normal as work from home, at-home workouts and meditation has increased demand for the already in-demand categories. Furthermore, from past few months, people are more devoted to ac-tive lifestyle which has resulted in high demand for activewear, loungewear etc. [3] According to Heuritech’s Instagram analysis 1 out of every 4 #covid-19 posts is related to a healthy lifestyle. In effect, activewear shows a boom among consumers specifically [4] leggings and cycling shorts are trending because these are the star items in this period of captivity. There is a rise in loungewear such as track pants, sweatshirts as consumers are focusing more on athletic activities, meditation, yoga, or simply lying about and they appear to be the biggest fashion trend at the moment.

According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), global GDP will decline by 3 per cent as an effect of COVID-19. Many shop owners trammeled their stock purchases because of low demand and increased inventory. According to the survey report by the International Textile Manufacturers Federation (ITMF), sales of fashion brands decreased by around 70 per cent in India, owing to en-forced lockdown and fear over coronavirus spread, resulting in piled-up apparel inventory [2]. The global apparel market size declined at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of -0.6 per cent since 2015 and reached nearly $527.1 billion in 2020 due to lockdown and social distancing. De-mand in the apparel market will recover slowly with unlocking and numerous apparel manufacturing companies resuming their operations. The industry is exploring new opportunities that have opened up due to the pandemic such as masks and PPE products.[2]

Impacts of Covid:

A.Supply chain disruption: China is one of the important suppliers of fashion goods.

Disruption in China means disruption in global value chain. The COVID-19 outbreak caused lockdown in China followed by rest of the world. As there was no demand in the market, the retailers were cancelling their orders. Each and every country had imposed restrictions on exports and imports to prevent the pandemic. The inventory that could not reach the retailers were stored for short period of time in warehouses. This inventory was not sold due to lockdowns and it was uncer-tain what demand would be there in the next season. The apparel industry’s revenue contracted by 27 to 30 per cent in 2020 over 2019 according to a predictive joint report from Business of Fashion and McKinsey & Company [5].

B.Market shift: With restrictions, the consumer shifted towards e-commerce because

of which retailers also had to shift their business. The one who already had e-commerce traction were ahead and others were increasing that reach through community-building virtual experiences. Nike’s e-commerce sales increased because it offered workout-from-home content on its fitness app. 80 per cent increase in users was observed in the first quarter, which fueled a 30 per cent increase in digital sales. Meanwhile, fashion companies with complementary digital and physical channels benefitted as shoppers picked up online orders from fashion outlets [5].

C.Work from homewear: The pandemic gave rise to the sales of comfortable leisurewear, as peo-ple worked, lived and played from their homes. “Work-from-home” is an apparel category that came into existence only in this pandemic and is going to persist for quite some time [5].

D.Changes to physical stores: The retailers who sent messages, as well as displayed safety pre-cautions such as masked salespeople, hand sanitiser and signs detailing frequent cleanings, social distancing, could observe more footfall when compared to other resellers. Consumers wanted to engage and shop in stores that clearly communicated their health and safety guidelines. As an effect, Apple wrote a letter to all of its consumers about how they are handling reopening, and Gucci distributed gloves and masks to all shoppers [5].

E.Customer relation: Apparel brands connected more deeply with their customer. Those retailers could make and keep relationship with consumers intact who deferred the universal risks and fears, rather than focusing only on pushing sales. Communication was the key to sustain con-sumers with their favourite brands, even though they were cautious with spending. Every manu-facturer was partly making masks to sustain in the market [5].