Terry Lundgren Says Apparel Market Can Take Some Slight Price Raises

According to ex-Macy’s executive Terry Lundgren, the apparel market probably won’t see any issues from rising inflation, CNBC reports.

Lundgren told CNBC’s “Power Lunch” that the industry, which has seen almost no inflation for a decade, would welcome a “modest” five percent increase in prices.

“This is not a big concern for apparel retailers,” he said, according to CNBC. “You’re talking about a few dollars going up in price. It’s not going to change the consumer’s mind in terms of purchasing.”

Lundgren’s comments come as there has been a continuing recovery of the economy. According to statistics from the Department of Labor from Tuesday (July 13), there was a 0.7 percent rise in apparel prices, and a 1.2 percent rise the month before. The apparel index, which is a part of the consumer price index, was up 4.9 percent in June compared to last year at the height of the pandemic.

Lundgren said the retail industry needs some pent-up demand, and he said he was optimistic about how the rest of 2021 was going to go in spite of the continuing threat of the COVID-19 Delta variant.

Lundgren called apparel an “event-driven” activity, and added that if things keep opening up like schools, concerts and other such events, apparel will follow suit and have a good time of it.

With the recent rising costs for things like raw materials, wages and shipping, many retailers are compensating by raising prices for customers. But because of the recent rise in digital shopping, price comparison has become much easier.

Macy’s has recently partnered with Klarna for Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) solutions allowing customers to “pay in 4,” or to pay in four installments for items in-store.

Now Macy’s customers have the ability to pay in-store for the Klarna app or create a digital card for one-time use and adding it to their digital wallets.