Next posts 28% fall in Q2 sales; says results are better than expected

Next’s second quarter results are out!

Yes, they are expectedly down, but the British fashion retailer is not worried. The 28 per cent fall in its full-price sales, according to the retailer, is better than expected – considering the massive havoc the pandemic has been creating since last 4 months.

The good part is that e-commerce business has seen a good jump of 9 per cent in sales compared to what it was during the same quarter last year.

The like-for-like sales in its stores have gone down by 72 per cent for the quarter to 25 July. What’s notable is that if the figures for the same are taken from 15 June onwards, ever since stores reopened, fall has been 32 per cent.

As far as products are concerned, Next said that kidswear, homewear and casualwear have expectedly performed well during the second quarter.

The retailer went into its end of season sale with just 1 per cent more stock than the previous year.

It is noteworthy that Next did not advertise its sale which helped in controlling the crowd and to add to it the retailer smartly started the event on a Thursday (instead of weekend), which restricted the crowd movement.

The available stock was limited in the online sale so that it matched the limited warehouse capabilities caused by social distancing. Consequently, the markdown sales fell by 12 per cent.

Next has now forecast a full-year profit of around £195 million, with the year-end total debt predicted to go down by about £460 million to £650 million.