Muslim fashion books 90 percent fall in revenue despite Ramadan
09 May, 2020
The Muslim fashion industry is experiencing a sharp decline in earnings at a time when the Ramadan festivities would normally result in peak sales, as COVID-19 impacts the economy.
The sales has dropped by up to 90 percent in April compared to March this season, according to Industry Ministry data. In response, the Muslim fashion industry had to lessen its output because of growing stockpiles.
“It impacts the stockpiling of [products] and also causes their earnings to drop,” the ministry’s small and medium enterprises (SME) director general, Gati Wibawaningsih, said in a virtual press briefing on Friday.
In response, some enterprises have shifted their production from Muslim clothing to protective personal equipment (PPE) or face masks to survive the monetary downturn, according to the ministry.
The social restrictions enforced to contain the spread of the virus, which includes infected a lot more than 12,700 persons nationwide by Thursday, is deemed to cause dwindling sales.
With lower than average budgets and more worries, the middle-income population in Greater Jakarta was projected to reduce their Ramadan spending on the whole by 36 percent, according to a survey released in April by Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) and SurveySensum.
Beyond Jakarta, spending by the middle-income population is projected to stop by 27 percent, the report reads.
To minimize the financial woes, the federal government is partnering with e-commerce company Shopee Indonesia in promoting local Muslim fashion.
Shopee Indonesia has seen the quantity of visitors to the web site surge by 25 times in comparison to normal days because the start of Ramadan, the company’s head of public policy and government relations, Radityo Triatmojo, says.
The e-commerce platform has pledged to supply 3 x more products than usual to market an online shopping festival between May 12 and 20.
“We recognize that in this example, many rely on the web marketplace,” Radityo said at the same briefing. “This opens the opportunity to seize the online business opportunity.”
Elzatta, a local Muslim clothing retailer operating 200 stores in the united states, is adapting to the coronavirus-induced monetary downturn by participating in Shopee Indonesia’s online shopping festival, in line with the company’s vice president, Tika Latifani Mulya.
The company can be utilizing social media and its website and mobile application to promote its products.
“We usually install a billboard and publish flyers during Idul Fitri, however, not this year,” Tika said at the same briefing. “We are employing social media around we can, because we can not bear too much cost either.”
Industry Minister Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita said the Muslim fashion industry shouldn't miss the opportunity from the booming global market for Muslim clothing.
Global shelling out for Muslim clothing was recorded at US$283 billion last year and projected to grow by 6 percent normally annually, in line with the State of the Global Islamic Economy report released this past year.
“There is an chance for our Muslim fashion industry to be the main and center of the world’s Muslim fashion in the not-so-distant future,” Agus, a Golkar Party politician, said in the same briefing.
He added that the industry’s success could have a direct effect on supporting sectors, such as for example tailors, raw material providers and logistics.
Source: www.thejakartapost.com