Much has been said about the dangers that the near-permanent existence of fashion sales poses to the fashion industry, with most analysis focussed on the damage it causes to fashion as a business and not as an art.
The Economic Times (a publication whose icon reveals that they’d desperately like to be the Financial Times) puts some figures to the argument.
In a piece that looks at how some fashion retailers are handling the cycle they’ve put themselves in of being constantly on sale, the piece focusses on fast fashion retailer Zara, saying:
Zara churns out more than 11,000 designs in a season, compared to only 2,000-4,000 items that its competitors offer. End result: Zara’s customers visit the store 14 times on an average per year, compared to 3-4 visits per year at traditional chains. Sellthrough rate for Zara is 80-85%.
The figure of 11,000 different design staggers me: I find it hard to imagine that a design team could have 2,000 to 4,000 unique things to say in a year, let alone 11,000.
