Arcadia has been on the downfall for a while and was grasping onto sales before lockdown however it appearances that lockdown was the final push to cause multiple financial issues and failing sales. 

 

Before lockdown Arcadia’s best known shops were competing against online fashion retailers such as Pretty Little Thing and ASOS. Arcadia’s brands didn’t rely too much on their  online sales and their main goal was the instore sales. During unprecedented times, many brands have had to rely on online sale as generally people are staying safe by shopping online to reduce unnecessary interactions between each other. Arcadia’s brands previously focussed less on their online stores, causing terrible sale figures and loosing market share against online competitors. 

 

In the UK, the group owns 500 stores and potential shop closures threatens thousands of jobs and huge financial ruin. ] This will further impact rising unemployment rates for the government as they continue to grapple with austerity. 2020 has been a challenging year for many people, including the government faced with significant and wide-rangingchallenges. They have been under enormous pressure by several political parties and bodies. As many jobs are set to be lost in the next few months it will cause more challenges for the government and taxpayers money overall. 

 

The future for Arcadia’s brands is currently unclear, although they are desperately evaluating options to save them. A possible choice is to sell all of Arcadia’s brands to well known online fashion markets or sell some of the brands and try to keep the famous household names such as Topshop but close down some stores. In the meantime many anxious and worrying employee will have to wait nervously and see what the future holds. Hopefully, there will be some much needed early festive cheer and relief.