Sales at Zara and H&M are back to pre-pandemic levels. And it's all thanks to post-lockdown wardrobe updates.
Background: Zara is owned by the world's largest fashion retailer, Inditex. Its Swedish rival, H&M, is the second-largest retailer. And both of these companies reckon that between August and November, sales returned to - and in some cases, exceeded - pre-pandemic levels.
What happened: Inditex reported sales of $11.5 billion, with net profits of $1.9 billion. H&M also saw net sales of $8.7 billion. Geeez!
What else: This is all despite these companies having to shut stores due to restrictions around the world. It's largely thanks to some post-pandemic pent-up demand.
💡Pent-up demand is when there's a rapid increase in demand for a service or product, usually after a period of subdued spending.
💡Customers tend to hold-off making big purchases during a recession (or a global pandemic), but that demand never goes away. Instead, it builds up. Like the tension in a Home & Away ep. This demand gets unleashed when signs of a recovery emerge.
💡It's happening on home soil too. Aussies spent more than $8 billion between Black Friday and Cyber Monday. And, we're expected to spend more than $21 billion on retail post-Xmas.
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