Department stores were hugely negatively impacted by the pandemic and continued to be negatively impacted in 2021, as registered the steepest constant value decline among all retailers, apart from vending. Department stores are losing favour among consumers, with shopping centres offer strong competition as they tend to offer a wide variety of products in one centre and often similar, if not the same, brands.
There are only two department store chains in Argentina and in 2021, the Chilean chain Falabella announced that it was leaving and looking for a buyer, after more than 28 years in the country. Falabella opened its first store in in Mendoza in 1993 and then expanded throughout Argentina.
There is now only one viable department store chain in Argentina, that is the Mexican chain Coppel, which follows a very different business model to Fallabella. Unlike Falabella, which focused on high-end goods in city centre locations, Coppel stores offers lower priced goods and are mainly located in shopping centres in the suburbs of Buenos Aires.
Coppel will grab the opportunity to widen its consumer base beyond low incomes consumers to higher income consumers, who will be more open to shopping in their stores due to the exit of Falabella. In addition, soaring inflation will see many consumers looking to trade down to cheaper brands.
Coppel will continue investing in the e-commerce channel. The company developed its online website during the 2020 lockdowns and initially its e-commerce operations was boosted by sales of electronics and appliances, due to the financial difficulties of electronic and appliance chains Garbarino and Ribeiro.
Although e-commerce became more popular in 2020, many consumers still value the experience of shopping in physical stores, where they can assess the size, fit and suitability of products. This is unlikely to diminish completely and will continue to attract consumers to department stores over the forecast period.
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Understand the latest market trends and future growth opportunities for the Department Stores industry in Argentina with research from Euromonitor International's team of in-country analysts – experts by industry and geographic specialisation.
Key trends are clearly and succinctly summarised alongside the most current research data available. Understand and assess competitive threats and plan corporate strategy with our qualitative analysis, insight and confident growth projections.
If you're in the Department Stores industry in Argentina, our research will help you to make informed, intelligent decisions; to recognise and profit from opportunity, or to offer resilience amidst market uncertainty.
Department stores are chained or independent retail outlets that usually exceed 2,500 sq metres of selling space, are typically in high-street or shopping mall locations, and have a primary focus on selling a range of non-food/drink/tobacco merchandise across several categories in different departments. Department stores usually have a mid-to-upper price positioning. Example brands include Macy’s, Marks & Spencer, and Takashimaya.
See All of Our DefinitionsThis report originates from Passport, our Department Stores research and analysis database.
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