US Apparel Retailers Are Raising Prices

As cotton prices rise and China's labor costs continue to rise, American retailers will be forced to raise this year.

The credit rating agency said

The price increase will affect many from Lo J Faith (North Face) to Levi's (Levis).

Monica Aggarwal, senior director of Fitch, told reporters that US retailers will raise their clothing prices by 10% to 15% from the end of 2010 by the fourth quarter of this year, according to Monica Aggarwal.

Retailers and manufacturers have been struggling to see whether the increased cost is passed on to consumers.

Aga Wall said, "considering that there is no data on clothing prices in the past twenty years, and no data on consumers' reaction to price increases", many retailers and manufacturers are not familiar with the situation.

Mike Ullman, chief executive of JC Penney, a mid-range department store, predicted last week that the industry will raise its clothing price by 5% to 20% in the second half of this year, only in the second half of.

JC Penney sells many brands of clothing, including Ali Shi Fagafaga Bong (Liz Claiborne) and docks (Dockers).

Levi's Levi (Levi's) warned this month that its clothing price will rise by two digits.

It said consumers' response was "unpredictable" and warned that rising prices could lead to reduced sales.

Levi's's Levi's jeans usually contain 90% of its cotton.

Cotton prices have risen 120% in the past year, as demand for consumer growth in emerging markets has pushed up commodity prices and exacerbated Western inflation, hitting a peak of more than $2 a pound in early March.

And as workers demand higher wages to cope with rising cost of living and comfortable living in the middle class, wages for Chinese garment factories are rising.

Aga Wall predicts that the rise in costs will lead to a 0.3% to 0.5% drop in the gross interest rate of American clothing retailers.

The gross margin of American apparel retailers is usually between 38% and 40%.

VF Corporation, which owns brands such as Costas outdoor clothing and Lee jeans, said in February that the cost of the company will rise by 4% in the first half of this year and 10% in the second half.

VF Corporation said the company would raise its product price, but warned that the price increase would not completely offset the upward pressure on product costs.

Aga Wall said that clothing companies would be more hesitant in raising the price of basic clothing such as T-shirts, because consumers had expectations of how much they should spend, but raising the price of more fashionable clothes would be easier.