US-China trade disputes to weigh on US fashion-retail businesses

LOS ANGELES -- US-China trade frictions ignited by the White House last year will impact the fashion-retail businesses in 2019, California Apparel News predicted.

In a story "Big Issues Will Affect Retail in 2019" published Thursday, the 74-year-old magazine quoted business insiders as saying that the shrink of consumer spending caused by cooling economy this year might be amplified by the trade disputes between the two biggest economies in the world.

"If the trade war continues, we're going to see some real price inflation of low-end and moderate-priced product," said Paula Rosenblum, managing partner for Retail Systems Research (RSR). "Since so much of apparel is a discretionary spend, the impact will be swift."

Online returns and voice-activated retail are other main factors to affect the industry, said the report.

However, Rosenblum did not forecast the scale of the impact, just saying: "I can't remember the last time US retailers dealt with fallout from a trade war."

"Carelessly implemented tariffs will be the act of killing the goose that lays the golden egg for retailers," the Florida-based leading retail market institute RSR said in a story "Retail Predictions For 2019: Moving Beyond Dog Bites Man" issued early this month.