- Fewer stores are a trend we have seen for a long time now that is accelerating, says Ola Nevander, retail analyst at HUI Research.
Although he points out that it is early to predict exactly what will happen, he says that there is much to indicate that city centers and malls with a high proportion of fashion stores will find it difficult.
"Shops that are close to housing, on the other hand, may perform relatively well," he says.
Gabriella Wulff, a researcher at the Center for Consumer Science at the University of Gothenburg, also sees the same trend, with shops disappearing from malls and city centers.
"It will be a void, it remains to be seen how you will fill it," she says.
Increased e-commerce
Ola Nevander also believes that we will see increased low-cost and online trading.
- We have more groups that have now undertaken to shop online.
E-commerce can also affect the physical stores. Gabriella Wulff believes that stores need to be considerably more flexible in the future in order to be able to change in times of crisis. She takes as an example that they could serve as mini-stores around the country for online trading.
- Nobody knows what it will look like in the future, this may be something that will drag on over time, or we will have to switch between these modes that we shut down and open up.
Quality is valued higher
Christoffer Göthlin owns an individual clothing store in Västerås and he is looking forward to the future, despite the fact that his shop is very tough right now.
He believes that the crisis could lead to the fashion industry starting to value quality higher than quantity.
- The suppliers have wanted me to buy as much as possible and I want customers to buy as much as possible. But if we can have a calmer pace, we will all feel good about it, he notes.