U.S. Clothing Retail Keeps Growth And Recovery In May

In May, retail sales in the United States fell by 1.3% month on month, exceeding market expectations, indicating that the stimulus effect of the federal government's fiscal measures on increasing consumption is weakening, and at the same time, it reflects that consumers have begun to reduce commodity spending and increase service expenditure in the context of the alleviation of the new epidemic.

According to the survey, Nike is still the most popular sportswear brand, followed by lululemon, vans parent VF group and Levi's will continue to be popular. In addition, sales performance of American Eagle Outfitters, l brands, and gap group are expected to accelerate as the back to school season and people return to work.

Specifically, the performance of the related retail channels such as clothing and home textiles in the United States in May was as follows:

Clothing stores: the growth rate has expanded and the retail market has basically recovered

Clothing sales continued to rebound as new crown vaccination coverage rose and States relaxed economic restrictions. In May, the sales of clothing stores reached US $25.2 billion, quadrupling the peak period of the epidemic in 2020 and 14% higher than the same period in 2019. According to the cumulative situation in the previous may, the retail sales of clothing and apparel have a good momentum, with a cumulative sales volume of 116.3 billion US dollars, an increase of more than 70% compared with the same period in 2020, and a slight increase of 5% compared with that in 2019. The increase has expanded again, reflecting that more enterprises have gradually returned to normal office and social activities.

Comprehensive stores: good growth momentum, exceeding the pre epidemic level

In May, the retail sales of comprehensive stores (including department stores and large supermarkets) continued to maintain a steady growth momentum, with retail sales reaching US $67.3 billion, up 10% over the same period in 2020 and 13% compared with the same period in 2019, and the growth rate was larger than that of last month. In the first five months, the total sales of comprehensive stores reached 338 billion US dollars, an increase of 11% over 2020 and 13.5% over the same period of 2019, showing a good growth momentum.

Department stores: steady recovery, gradually returning to pre epidemic level

In May, the sales of department stores (all categories) reached 11.4 billion US dollars, an increase of 28% over the same period in 2020, with a decrease in the growth rate, but only 0.1% compared with the same period in 2019. In the first five months, the total sales of department stores reached 54.6 billion US dollars, an increase of 18% over the same period in 2020 and a decrease of 4.7% compared with the same period in 2019. However, the decline rate has gradually narrowed and is steadily returning to the level before the epidemic.

Home furnishing stores: maintain double-digit growth momentum

In May, the retail sales of home furniture reached 12.2 billion US dollars, nearly double the same period in 2020 and 22% higher than that in the same period in 2019. From January to may, the total retail sales of household furniture reached US $60.7 billion, nearly half of the same period in 2020 and 22% higher than that in the same period of 2019, maintaining a steady double-digit growth momentum.

Online retail: rapid growth and slow growth

Online retail sales (all categories) in May reached US $87.9 billion, up 7.9% year-on-year, but 39% higher than the same period in 2019. In the first five months, the total amount of online retail sales in the United States reached 436.8 billion US dollars, an increase of 22% compared with the same period of last year, and an increase of 42% compared with the same period of the previous year.

(source: China Textile Import and Export Chamber of Commerce)