The fashion industry was born from individuals designing clothes based on the taste of their customers. It took birth from the local tailors to expert designers. By the end of the 20th century, factories started to set up.
The fashion industry experienced a fast growth. Resulting in a 300-billion-dollars profit. It was growing quickly in 2019 until it stopped. The fashion industry had developed a worth of 545-billion-dollars in 2019. This led to a growth estimation of 600-billion-dollars.
The global pandemic, Covid-19, was first reported in Wuhan, China. It spread throughout the world. Therefore, led to 61 million cases and 1.43 million deaths by, 27th of November in 2020.
This virus, further, led to an unusual economic downfall.As per The International Monetary Foundation (IMF), in 2020, the global GDP was to grow up to 5.4%. It is now on track to recover the loss. According to them, the global economy would at least recover the 4.9% loss.
Moreover, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) estimated a decline in world trade. In 2020, it has been varying between 13% and 32%. Followed by a downfall between 0.5% and 3.8%.This is not all, Covid-19, led to an 8.8% economic downfall. However, it had been estimated to rise by 0.6% between 2019 and 2020.
As per the surveys: The Australian economy’s GDP shrunk. It shrunk to 7%. But recovered only a per cent of that. Yet, Africa had a 3.3% economic downfall. This was greater than the estimation made of only 1.4% downfall.
Similarly, in Asia, which has more agricultural Countries faced a 12% downfall. However, it quickly recovered up to 4.7% of the loss. The United States of America experienced a 32.9% economic loss. These were the loss faced by all continents in all of their industries.
The Fashion Industry has faced a big loss. They lost about 28.1%. But gradually recovered by only 2%. The sales in the United States of America went down 50.5% in March 2020. Bangladesh faced an economic downfall of 72.4%. However, as stated by IMF, Bangladesh has an 85% share in the global trade of clothes. Hence, it is a big blow to their economy. Moreover, the average loss of Asia was only 30%. Whereas, Africa faced a loss of 29%.
The outlets experienced a noticeable loss. Due to the presence of coronavirus, stores were all shut down. Therefore, to prevent contact and the spread of the virus, many businesses shut. Everything shifted online, increasing online sales. There were 14.1% online sales in 2019. This has now increased by 0.3% to 14.3% in 2020, regardless of the closure of 23% of outlets.
Africa is known for wax printed fabrics. Fabrics like Kitenge and Ankara hold a high demand in the market.
They hold an annual sales volume of 2.1 billion yards. Followed by, the average economic value of 4-billion-dollars. The Sub-Saharan areas of Africa have a high demand for wax prints. It was influenced by, the Indonesian method of dyeing cloth. Whereas, the cloth is submerged into dye. It is, prevented to dye as a whole by wax. Hence, this technique helps to make multiple patterns on the cloth.
The demand for Ankara increased as time flew. That when Africa had digitization in 2012. 20.4 million people in Kenya, who made online accounts, made 49% purchases in African prints. 80% of Africa has access to digitized technology. Africa as covered about 30% of the area with a wireless internet connection by 2019. Hence, they adopted the latest method of communication and retail.
Moreover, Africa has about 60% of men and 75% of women involved in the economy of Africa regarding the fabric industries. That, with an annual growth of online stores in Africa, the demand for African Fabric increased. From which, Statista, has estimated an 8.3-billion-dollar growth of Fashion Industry in Africa, to 14.2%.
In short, the appearance of Covid-19 led to a 0.3% increase in online retail sales excluding Amazon.
