Pureplay fashion retailer Zalando says it will keep its warehouses open in a bid to preserve “business continuity” despite saying it had seen a drop in consumer demand for its products due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The German retailer told Retail Week it would be keeping its warehouses and distribution centres open but had implemented a number of measures designed to protect the health of its staff.
A spokeswoman for the retailer said Zalando was “monitoring the situation closely” and was “focused on ensuring both employee safety as well as business continuity”.
Zalando said it had seen a noticeable fall in demand from customers in areas that have been effectively locked down due to the spread of the coronavirus, including the UK.
The spokeswoman added: “The circumstances under which we operate are currently changing on a daily basis. Until the lockdown in several countries, we had not seen a major impact on our business. Since the lockdowns started, we noted a negative impact in the form of lower consumer demand in affected areas.”
The retailer said it had taken numerous measures to protect staff in warehouses, including increased cleaning, separating groups and changes to “certain operational processes to reduce or even avoid contacts” between staff.
While non-essential retailers have been allowed by the UK government to continue online operations during the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, warehouse staff’s health and safety has become an increasingly prominent issue.
Several multichannel and pureplay retailers such as Next, Schuh, TK Maxx and Net-a-Porter have closed warehouses over the last few days, some after facing criticism from unions.
Despite this, pureplay fashion retailer Asos said yesterday that it would continue to operate and was closely following government guidelines at warehouses around ensuring staff are following social distancing rules.
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