With its stores and its website down, Next has been trying to delay orders and is considering leasing extra warehousing to hold stock flowing into the business, predicting that disruption stemming from the outbreak could wipe GBP 1 billion off its 2020 sales.
As the high street retailers keep on closing their shops, GlobalData analysts believe that the amount spent on clothes and shoes will decrease by 20% in 2020. According to The Guardian, the fall is equivalent to the combined annual clothing sales of Primark, Marks & Spencer and Next.
On 26 March 2020 River Island and Net-A-Porter also announced closing their websites. River island declared that it will fulfil existing web orders but would not process any new ones as it began closing its distribution centre in Milton Keynes.
According to Deloitte, a net total of 9,169 stores closed in the UK in 2019, which was a fifth more than in 2018, the equivalent of 25 stores a day.
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