Loungewear Boom Boosts Boohoo Sales

British fast-fashion retailer Boohoo has seen sales rise by 44% for the year ending February 2020 – a boost it expects to continue, as it’s able to adapt production commitments and respond swiftly to the rising interest in lockdown loungewear.
As reported in The Homewear Opportunity, loungewear has enjoyed a surge in sales among housebound consumers as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, and retailers expect this trend to grow in the coming months. Boohoo – which owns multiple online fast-fashion sites including Nasty Gal and Pretty Little Thing – expects to capitalise on this as demand for comfortable basics increases.
Numerous fashion brands have come under fire recently for cancelling stock orders during the outbreak. But Boohoo’s rapid and reactive nature meant that not only did it have a huge amount of excess stock, but also time to instruct its factories to repurpose fabric from other clothing categories into activewear and loungewear instead. This placed Boohoo in a unique position to meet consumer demand for homewear faster than many of its competitors.
To make these items easier to find, Boohoo, Pretty Little Thing and Nasty Gal have all introduced a Stay Home section to their homepages, divided into sub-sections such as ‘casual’, ‘activewear’ and ‘self-care’. Additionally, the hashtag #boohoointhehouse is being applied across Boohoo’s site and social media channels, encouraging customers and influencers to share photos of themselves in their new loungewear purchases.
For more on innovative brand responses to the pandemic, see Covid-19: Fashion Industry Survival Strategies. Also, keep an eye on our Coronavirus: Updates & Brand Responses page for daily updates.