As an impact of the coronavirus COVID19 on the different industries, especially the fashion industry as Bloomberg reports that about 1,089 garment factories in Bangladesh have had orders canceled worth roughly $1.5 billion due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Zara (the fast-fashion retailer) started to close retail stores across the globe and it kept many shops closed since mid-March.

Zara plans to shut down around 1,000 to 1,200 stores and turn the resources to the online sales. Zara shut down stores which “stores at the end of their useful life” and “whose sales can be recovered in nearby stores and online.”

As an impact of the isolation, Inditex reported a loss of about $460 million between February and April. On the other hand, online sales rose by 50% during the same quarter, compared with the previous year.

Zara shut down offline stores and go-to online to increase sales and enhance the business performance that had been impacted with COVID19. Inditex CEO Pablo Isla confirmed the company will “increase the online customer service teams and the dedicated packaging both from the specific online stockrooms and from the stores,” as well as offer customers “uninterrupted service no matter where they find themselves, on any device and at any time of the day.”

Also, Isla added that they have new plans to face the situation, Zara plans to invest $1 billion into its online shopping platforms over the next 3-years and another $1.7 billion on upgrading stores to be better equipped by “deploying advanced technology solutions.”

In the times of the COVID19, online business is the best choose to achieve sales and grow the business. And it’s expect that many brands all over the world will shut down their offline stores (like, Zara shut down their stores) and turn into online stores to ensure its continuity in the market.

Within the past week, Fast Company reported, The Children’s Place, Guess, and Signet Jewelers all announced store closures, while Victoria’s Secret, Gap, and JCPenney have also confirmed they’ve been forced to close some of their doors due to the crisis.

It’s very important to understand the market and the needs of the customers to enhance the business’s strategies to fit the new changes.

Every business can benefit from the transformation, especially when the business aims to grow.

Digital transformation can help new or traditional businesses to:

• Identify strategic goals to target new segments and enter new and global markets.
• Keep business’s innovation and allows for businesses to continuously be looking at how to achieve better results.
• Increase revenues.
• Reduce the costs (where possible).

We in SME Consulting will help you to turn your business to digital to increase your sales and enhance your business’s performance with solid study that will cover all the sides of the business “including employees performance” to the financial modeling to manage your finances in the times of the crisis.

If you want to know more details, Contact us NOW.