China displaced the US to gain top position in terms of apparel retail market size during COVID-19 years of 2022 and 2021, mainly owing to milder impact of the pandemic compared to the world’s largest economy. It is projected that China would gain further lead over the US by 2025 because the market size growth will be more than double for the Asian giant. 

The US was much ahead of China in 2017, when apparel retail market size was $327.61 billion for the US and $235.30 billion for China. American market size grew to $332.86 billion in 2018 and $337.52 billion in 2019. But the market size shrunk to $252.90 billion in 2020 due to the pandemic and frequent lockdowns, according to Fibre2Fashion’s market insight tool TexPro. The market size recovered to $282.89 billion in 2021 and is likely to reach $290.40 billion till 2025, growing at a CAGR of 2.80 per cent during 2020-2025. 

China’s apparel retail market size increased to $258.83 billion in 2018 and further to $283.42 billion in 2019. The pandemic had disrupted the Chinese economy too and its market size fell to $264.92 billion in 2020. But China bounced back to $284.70 billion in 2021, due to milder impact of COVID-19, as per TexPro. The market size is expected to reach at $372.13 billion in 2025, growing at a CAGR of 7.03 per cent during 2020-2025. 

Global apparel market size was $1387.66 billion in 2017, which grew to $1450.90 billion in 2018 and $1518.81 billion in 2019. It shrunk to $1263.67 billion in 2020. But the market size increased to $1352.42 billion in 2021. It is projected to reach $1574.88 billion in 2025, growing at a CAGR of 4.5 per cent during 2020-25.

By Fibre2Fashion 
https://www.fibre2fashion.com/news/apparel-news/china-topples-us-in-apparel-retail-market-size-during-covid-19-281568-newsdetails.htm