Affected by political factors such as the COVID-19 and the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the global economy fell into a downturn, and China’s foreign trade orders for textiles and clothing declined significantly. At this point, the domestic demand market, another engine that drives the economy, is particularly important for the entire textile industry. Although the three-year epidemic has come to an end, the derivative effects of the epidemic still exist, and it is uncertain whether everyone’s consumption ability and confidence will recover. In order to understand the actual demand and consumption trend of China’s textile and clothing terminal market, and the impact of the COVID-19 on consumers’ consumption ability and consumption habits, the China Textile Industry Federation Shanghai Office, together with the Shanghai Textile Business Association and Donghua University, conducted a sample survey of textile and clothing terminal consumption. To assess the industry’s performance and predict market trends in the second half of the year through research on terminal demand. This survey is divided into two parts. The first part is to conduct on-site visits to various shopping malls and wholesale markets to understand the customer flow and sales operations of the stores. In order to accurately understand the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on terminal consumption and the recovery of current consumption, we compared the current business conditions of stores with those before the epidemic and last year respectively during our visit and investigation. The second part is to distribute consumer questionnaires to understand the current economic situation, consumption ability, consumption habits, and consumption confidence of consumers. In the first part of the visit, we further divided the types of shops visited into department stores, clothing wholesale markets, and clothing customization markets to understand the situation of different types of shops. This survey surveyed a total of 292 specialty stores in 26 shopping malls in 9 commercial districts in Shanghai; 168 shops in 8 wholesale malls on Qipu Road; 40 custom clothing shops in the South Bund textile market; A questionnaire survey was conducted on 1023 consumers. The scope of this survey basically covers the main shopping malls in the main commercial districts of Shanghai, so it has a certain representativeness. From the current investigation, it can be seen that after three years of the impact of the epidemic, the consumption of textiles and clothing has been greatly affected. Although the situation has improved compared to last year, it still has not returned to the level before the epidemic. Moreover, consumer confidence and habits, as well as the business model and layout of shopping malls, have undergone significant changes. The specific investigation situation is as follows: Part One: On site investigation of stores. Investigation situation of major department stores. In this investigation, we conducted a visit to 26 shopping malls in 9 major business districts in Shanghai, including “Xujiahui”, “Zhongshan Park”, “Wujiaochang”, “Continental Jiazui”, “Nanjing East Road”, “Huaihai Road”, “Jing’an Temple”, “Daning”, and “Tibet Road”. The focus of the survey is mainly on customer flow, sales situation, and other aspects. According to the survey feedback, there are mainly the following aspects: 1. From the perspective of customer traffic, most of the visited merchants have reported an increase in customer traffic this year compared to last year, accounting for 58.23%. This is mainly because last year was still during the epidemic period, and everyone’s travel was relatively cautious. We also compared the situation with the situation before the 2019 pandemic, and the results were not optimistic. 69.86% of merchants reported that their current customer traffic is not as high as before the epidemic, while only 19.18% of merchants reported that their current customer traffic exceeded before the epidemic. This indicates that the epidemic has fallen behind and the passenger flow in shopping malls is recovering, but it has not yet returned to the pre epidemic state.
2. From the sales situation, the business status reported by the surveyed merchants is basically consistent with the customer flow situation. 55.67% of merchants reported an increase in sales compared to last year. However, compared to before the 2019 pandemic, this proportion was only 19.18%, while 69.86% of merchants reported a decrease. The current business situation of the merchant has not fully recovered.
5. In the survey of best-selling items, most merchants reported that simple casual clothing is better sold. Consumers also prefer pure cotton clothing.
3. Investigation on Clothing Customization in the South Bund Light Textile Fabric Market: The South Bund Light Textile Fabric Market is a well-known clothing customization market in Shanghai. This time, we visited 40 clothing customization shops in the market.
From the perspective of market passenger flow, there has been a significant recovery compared to last year. Among the 40 surveyed merchants, 36 reported higher passenger flow this year, accounting for 90% of the surveyed merchants. However, there is still a significant gap between the current situation and before the epidemic. Regarding the comparison with before the epidemic, only 5 merchants reported an increase in customer traffic, accounting for 12.5%, while 34 customers reported a decrease, accounting for 85%.
2. From the sales situation in the market, although there has been a good recovery this year, it is only because Shanghai was deeply affected by the epidemic last year, and there is still a significant gap compared to before the epidemic. The specific data is shown in the table.
3. From the perspective of customer sources in the customized market, the proportion of repeat customers among merchants is very high, mostly over 80%. This indicates that clothing customization has a relatively stable consumer group, and customer loyalty is also high.
4. During this visit, we learned that most clothing customization shops have opened online order taking services. Among the 40 surveyed merchants, 34 said they are or have received orders through the internet, accounting for 85% of the surveyed customers. This indicates that the online sales model has also been widely recognized in the clothing customization market. Part 2: Consumer Questionnaire Survey: To understand the actual situation of consumption from the perspective of consumers, we conducted a consumer questionnaire survey through interviews with passersby and online distribution, and collected a total of 1023 questionnaires. The occupations of the respondents cover various occupational types, with an age distribution ranging from 18 years old to 60 years old and above, and most of them concentrated in the age group of active consumption between 25 and 50 years old. This questionnaire is mainly divided into three parts, one is the basic information of the respondents, the second is the survey of the consumption of the respondents, and the third is the survey of the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic. 1、 Based on the basic information of the respondents, the proportion of males in the sample is 39.59%, and that of females is 60.41%; In terms of education, 86.80% of them hold college or above degrees; In terms of age, 72.63% are between 25 and 50 years old. Therefore, most of the surveyed samples are the main consumer groups, which can objectively reflect the actual situation of end consumers at present. Among the surveyed individuals, the majority of them have a household income between 8000 and 25000 yuan, accounting for 54.64%. Through a survey of consumers’ income situation in the past year, it was found that 20.43% of people stated that their income has decreased this year, a decrease of 13.64 percentage points compared to last year’s survey data. However, compared to 2019 before the epidemic, it has still increased significantly. In addition, 32.26% of people this year reported an increase in income, which is an 11 percentage point increase compared to last year, but also lower than the pre pandemic 2019. This indicates that with the end of the epidemic, the income situation of residents this year has improved compared to last year, but it is far from returning to the pre epidemic state.