Although a year ago economic recession and yet Threat of decline in consumer confidence He continues to harass tradesmen, the industry ends with victory offer It’s Christmas and getting ready for some sales where everything seems to be going well. The latest move isn’t just for companies wringing their hands when they hear temperatures are finally dropping for real. Textile industry barely recovering pre-Covid sales volume; but also to the customer because everything shows that ‘Stock’ accumulated as a result of a very summery autumn season will lead to huge discounts. Moreover, all this is supported by a ‘D-day’ that falls on a Sunday.
Before going any further, Catalonia delegate of the Spanish Association Shopping malls and old Director of La Maquinista, Victor Garcia SorianoDon’t forget that the historical record for the flock to this shopping center was reached on Saturday during the winter sales. “Logic says this must be a very nice day,” says this director. Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield.
The truth is that many companies have been activating their promotions for days, but the 7th is the company that brings big names from the industry to the party (e.g. English Court or stores Inditex) and remains the official start day in the collective imagination. However, falling on a Sunday also has its tradeoff: “When sales fall on the weekend, people tend to put in a lot of effort in the first few days, but within a week or two those efforts wear off,” explains Garcia Soriano. Even so, We expect a slightly higher sales level than last yearIn line with what is already happening during Christmas.
“The problem is that this situation has gone from better to worse, and in the last half of the year, especially in September and October, the cost of this has been very high,” he explains general manager of this organization, David Garcia Usle. “It is true that major distributors are making efforts to manage stocks better, but this has not been a good autumn and we are heading into winter with plenty of product at points of sale,” explains this spokesperson. What previously seemed like bad news for business is an “excellent signal” for the consumer: Discounts will be aggressive, García Uslé predicts.
A “very good” campaign
“The discount largely depends on the amount of ‘stock’ you have of that item because The goal of all brands is to reach the end of the season with as little stock as possible.: After all, they all measure their success by the percentage of products sold during the season; If this percentage is low, you need to improve your rate, and this improvement is achieved by offering more discounts,” notes the MODACC director.
So this organization as a whole also expects the reductions to work very well. It doesn’t even matter that people have already bought a lot for Christmas: they buy gifts in December and You want to make a wardrobe change or prepare yourself for the cold in January. Congratulating this forecast by taking the following points into consideration, García Uslé summarizes: “There will be ‘stock’ and it is a good campaign to try to resupply.”Discount is always an opportunity for billing and interaction with the consumer”.
El Corte Inglés also has it. “It will be a very good campaign because We have a large stock of tailoring and winter clothing“Autumn was very warm, and although things got back in business a bit during Christmas, we still have a lot of product,” say sources from these department stores. “This also affects the lowering of temperatures, and this will benefit us,” they add, before expanding the list of hopeful factors starting on Sunday: Their audience – as the same sources emphasize – already trusts them to be successful in this regard. Open on Sunday. , because they’ve been acting this way all season long, so they have no doubt that he’ll go on the date. “We believe this will work,” they conclude.
Dark clouds and small business fears
The only fear the industry has admitted is that this will be the last batch before the definitive decline in consumption. “What macroeconomic forecasts decline in consumer confidence and 2024 is expected to be a more challenging year for the consumption of fashion and other goods”, admits the general director of MODACC. On the one hand, he reassures him that this is not the first time these drums have been beaten and that 2023 is still a good year. On the other hand, he is worried that many merchants are already suspicious when buying clothes. winter season 2024.
Actually, proximity trading It’s not even clear that this first consumer event of the year is going so well. From Pimec Comerc They recall that before the holidays began, almost 60% of their coworkers did not have a clear prediction of what would happen in December and January. “There are positive factors and restraining factors,” he summarizes president of this group of the association of small and medium-sized businesses, Antonio Torres. “The rise in prices of electricity, transport, food and mortgages means that the purchasing power of families is decreasing,” he recalls, “but it is also true that the weather so far is not quite like autumn-winter. offers will be good“. “There are many conditions,” this spokesman concludes, making it clear that sales behavior during Christmas in small businesses largely depends on the region, far from the unanimous sentiment of large businesses that everything went well.
“Many have not yet reached pre-pandemic levels.” Spanish Confederation Trade (MSK), an association that took the opportunity to denounce the additional challenges posed by the rules of the game that currently govern sales to small businesses. “Sales are carried out by tradition, but there is a lack of regulation in the legislation.” Liberalization of periods in 2012 “It means that consumer interest is lost and the spiral of promotions chained throughout the year turns into a new discount period,” he said.