Winter discounts bring cheer to clothing brands, customers

Although there are only about 17 days to go before the biting cold all over the country makes way for the warm embrace of spring, customers are flocking to outlets of local clothing brands in a rush to secure the best winter clothes.

Buyers are usually unwilling to buy new winter clothes near the end of the season, but this time around the scenario is quite different as brands have drawn in customers with huge discounts, ranging from 10 percent to 70 percent, as they look to sell out their leftover winter stocks.

"I bought 10 items, including four shirts, two pants and two blazers, at a cost of Tk 17,000. I will buy more items," Abu Bakkar Siddiq, a higher secondary student, said while purchasing a blazer from Gentle Park at the Bashundhara City shopping mall in Dhaka yesterday.

Speaking to The Daily Star, Siddiq added that his purchases would serve him not only for the remaining days of the current winter season, but in the future as well.

"I am buying branded products at almost half their original value so that I can use them next winter," he said with a wide smile.

This reporter waited for more than half an hour seeking a window to approach Gentle Park branch manager Al Amin Khan for a conversation, but he could only spare a few minutes as he dealt with numerous customers at a time.

He said they had been offering a flat 30 percent discount on all products and 50 percent discount on some special products.

"Our sales increased by around 40 percent compared to normal winter days," Khan said, adding that they still had plenty of items from their winter collection in stock.

Visiting an outlet of Yellow on the ground floor of the same shopping mall, this reporter counted at least 100 customers sorting through the items as the brand was offering a flat 50 percent discount.

Similar scenes were witnessed at outlets of different brands, which were offering New Year or winter discounts. Some launched month-long offers from January 1 while others were offering discounts for a certain period.

Nurul Islam, manager of an outlet of Richman, said they were offering discounts up to 40 percent for the month of January, adding that the offer had drawn a huge number of customers, boosting sales by about 25 percent.

"The joy of buying things at a discount is different. I literally wait to buy products until they are discounted," said Altaf Ahmed, a youth who bought six items from different clothing brands to use in the coming winters.

Alamgir Hossain, another customer, said he loves to wear branded clothes but could not usually afford them as prices are much higher than non-branded counterparts.

"This is why I had been waiting for discount offers from brands. It doesn't matter if winter ends within the next couple of weeks. I am buying the branded products for next winter," he added.

Abu Raihan Raiyan, a branch manager of an Infinity outlet, said they were offering up to 70 percent discounts on clothing items for babies, which had drawn huge attention from customers and boosted the sale of winter clothes near the end of the season.

Md Parvez Hossain, manager of an outlet of Easy Fashion, said they had already sold out 60 percent of their total stock of winter clothing items.

"Now we are offering a 10 percent discount to sell the rest of the winter items. Already 80 percent of the discounted products have been sold out so far," he added.

Among other local brands, Sailor is offering a flat 50 percent discount, Mbrella up to 50 percent, Rise up to 50 percent, Ecstasy flat 30 percent, Westeen 30 percent, Baby Shop 20 percent, BEAT 60 percent, and Artisan 30 percent.

According to a survey by the Bangladesh Fashion Entrepreneurs Association, a platform of fashion organisations, conducted in 2012, fashion houses across the country make sales of around Tk 6,000 crore throughout the year.