SCENE
DIGITAL JOURNEY OF 3 FASHION RETAIL GIANTS
Alina Sidbrant Local Group St. Petersburg
2020 took me by a total surprise. In January I was
companies’
performances
during
COVID-19.
sitting with my calendar, planning all the trips
According to the Central Statistics Office, there
and marketing activities for the year, and then in
was a decrease of 35.9% in the value of retail sales
March, everything in Ireland locked down for an
in April 2020 when compared with March 2020
indefinite period because of the pandemic.
and there was an annual decrease of 44.8%. How did our research participants compare though?
For me, the transition of working from the office to working from home was quite easy. I have a
Primark
computer-based job in a digital agency, where
Sadly, Primark has gone from hero to zero. From
everything is cloud-based, but this unique state of
a BBC interview with George Weston, the CEO
things caused by Covid-19 made me think about
of Associated British Foods (Primark holding
my favourite brands – how did they cope with the
company), we learned that the business “has been
transition, did they also have to adjust their sales
squarely in the path of this pandemic... From
process overnight?
making sales of £650m each month, since the last of our stores closed on 22 March, we have sold
The industry I decided to look at was fashion
nothing.” Furthermore, he admitted that without
retail. I chose Primark (known as Penneys in
furlough support from European states, many
Ireland), H&M, and Asos. Firstly, because these
of Primark’s 68,000 staff would have been made
are the brands I like and am very familiar with as
redundant. The company has also written down
a customer. Secondly, I wanted to showcase the
the value of its clothing stock by £284m.
different approaches to sales these brands have; Primark not having an online store, H&M having
H&M
both – web e-commerce shop and distribution
H&M’s net sales for the three months to May
stores, and Asos – being a purely online retailer, as
31st fell on average 50 percent compared with a
well as one of the biggest online retailers in Ireland
year earlier, to 28.7 billion crowns (€2.7 billion). In
and Europe.
Germany, sales are down 46% so far in the second quarter, while in its second-biggest market, the
Business during the “new normal” - survival of
US, sales are down 71%, the group has reported.
the fittest?
However, H&M’s online sales jumped 36 percent.
I decided to look at the numbers, starting with
32 ESTIEM Magazine | 59th issue - Innovation in a Crisis: Adapting and Advancing
