‘Weathernomics’ a report by The Weather Channel has claimed that last year, Britain’s weather cost UK fashion industry US $ 750 million. “Severe or extreme weather has less impact on retail sales than long periods of bad weather for example 10 days of 3 inch snow is much worse than 1 day of 30 inch snow,” report says and adds that role of weather conditions on UK retail business performance is being under-estimated by UK retail commentators like British Retail Consortium. Last year saw the warmest Halloween on records and Waitrose reported a 41 per cent increase in sales of Halloween products. This year was also the warmest year on record and the unseasonably mild autumn was estimated to have reduced clothing sales.
It shows that fashion business is very susceptible to seemingly small variations in weather: a seasonal temperature 1°C higher/lower than the norm can lead to a ‘disappointing’ quarter or annual result. In the US $ 330 billion UK retail sector, the performance of retailers can be critically judged on a 1 per cent increase/decrease in sales while US academics estimate retail sector sensitivity to weather fluctuations can equate to as much as 2.3 per cent of the sector’s sales.
Bharat Tex Special Report 2026 
