Dynamic recovery, household morale in good shape and end of the last gauges in store: the period of the summer sales opens Wednesday for four weeks in a favorable context, with customers having “want to have fun” after many month of health crisis. Deserted stores, many apprehensions … Last summer, after the first confinement, consumers generally shunned stores, let alone clothing brands. The sales had not flourished.
Consumers “want to have fun”
This year, the kickoff coincides with the end of the gauges that limited the number of customers in stores. “We are not at all in the same health context as last year, there is less concern” thanks in particular to vaccination, underlines Yohann Petiot, director general of the Alliance du commerce, which represents the businesses of clothing, footwear and downtown. The Trade Alliance recorded “a nice reopening” in May, with sales up 41% between May 19 and June 12 compared to the last “normal” year in 2019, according to a panel of a around forty brands representing the clothing market produced with Retail Int. Consumers “want to have fun,” says Yohann Petiot.
On the third week of June (from 14 to 20), the Ministry of the Economy for its part identified sales in physical stores “higher by 16% than their pre-crisis level”, and “online sales of 24 % “. In June, household morale reached its highest level since the implementation of health restrictions, and consumption by these same households soared (+ 10.4%) in May, according to INSEE. “There is a desire to consume and that is really reflected in the facts,” said Minister Delegate for SMEs Alain Griset, Wednesday at the microphone of Sud Radio.
“The sales remain a highly anticipated moment for traders”
Will the favorable consumer environment make it possible to halt the slowing down of sales? Because the budget that French consumers devote to it is crumbling, according to the panelist Kantar: from 215 euros on average in 2016, it fell to 153 euros in 2020, a decrease of 41%. At the same time, “the budget for promotions is growing”, albeit modestly, from 251 to 262 euros. “The sales remain a highly anticipated moment for traders, especially as some have goods to sell” after being closed for several months, pleads Yohann Petiot, however.
Parisian businesses should in any case “walk” better than the previous year, when the sales had been postponed to the heart of summer: Paris was then largely emptied of its inhabitants and deplored the absence of international tourists. Regional disparities could however be observed again, between areas where trade is doing well, in particular the western front of France, from Amiens to Biarritz via Le Havre or Brest, and those where the absence of international tourists and of some (tele) workers weigh on store sales. The sales will last four weeks, until Tuesday July 27 inclusive.
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