The winter sales start on Wednesday January 11. But, since the end of December, in hypermarkets, in shops and on the Internet, the French have already benefited from discounts, promotions and private sales to buy coats, boots and sweaters at discounted prices. Because fashion and shoe stores are full of goods. Despite an early cold snap in early December, “Winter was very mild”, recalls Emmanuel Le Roch, delegate of the Procos specialist trade federation. Therefore, traders, who have struggled to sell the most wintery clothes, should practice strong discounts during this sales period. Their survival is often at stake.
Because operating in the fashion market promises to be acrobatic in 2023. “All brands must succeed in the sales to replenish their cash. It’s an injunction”, already believes Emmanuel Le Roch. Most suffered from erratic activity in 2022. Despite sales growth of 3.7%, at the end of November 2022, compared to the same period in 2021, clothing sales in France did not returned to the level of 2019.
“At the end of November, they were 6.6% lower than those recorded before the start of the Covid-19 crisis”, says Gildas Minvielle, director of the economic observatory of the French Fashion Institute (IFM). Shoemakers, who make nearly a quarter of their annual sales in January, are also eager to sell off their unsold items: sales for 2022 show a “delay of 2% to 3% compared to 2019”notes Dorval Ligonnière, head of studies for the French Footwear Federation.
These two markets are suffering from the new purchasing behavior of the French. Many people give up traveling by car, or at least limit its use to reduce their fuel consumption. The attendance of shopping centers fell by 12% in October and November 2022, then by 8% in December, recognizes Christophe Noël, general delegate of the Federation of commercial actors in the territories (Fact) which represents the managers of shopping centers.
New wave of closures
Because many French people are struggling to digest the 15% price increase in the food departments over the year 2022. The clothing budget suffers first and foremost. Consumers “stop their purchases”believes Mr. Minvielle, ” and it’s not over “. A survey, carried out at the end of 2022 by the firm Wavestone, estimates that 80% of French people intend to reduce their clothing expenditure in 2023. Because, predicts Mr. Minvielle, “it is likely that we will enter a lasting inflation”.
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