France

After an extensive drop in 2020, value sales of footwear enjoyed a rather strong recovery in the second half of 2021. Despite unfavourable weather, this category enjoyed a double-digit peak in sales growth during the summer of 2021. However, this…

The onset of the pandemic in 2020 initially proved highly problematic for discounters. Despite the advantage of their low prices, during the first lockdown period and its immediate aftermath, consumers opted to frequent one-stop shopping formats.…

Although it saw a slightly improved performance in volume terms in 2020, polishes continued declining during the pandemic, in both 2020 and 2021. Polishes in France has been suffering from changing consumer habits and lifestyles, with the regular use…

After the strong growth seen in dishwashing in 2020, sales were stagnating in 2021. COVID-19 had a positive impact on dishwashing in France in 2020, as lockdowns and remote working/learning as well as the closure of foodservice establishments meant…

Expectations that 2021 would signal a return to some semblance of normality in the lives of French consumers after a year of severe disruption in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic went unfulfilled as several waves of COVID-19 swept through the…

Retail tissue saw slightly higher retail volume and current value growth in 2020 than in any other year of the review period. Stockpiling was seen at the beginning of both the first and second COVID-19 lockdowns, particularly within toilet paper, due…

Sportswear posted a limited drop in value sales in 2020 and enjoyed an appreciable recovery in 2021 despite four further months of lockdown due to the high levels of contamination in France during the winter of 2021. Rising health awareness was…

Over 2020-2021, childrenswear, along with sportswear, was the least affected category by the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic despite the fact that schools were forced to close for at least four months during the lockdowns of 2020. Many sales…

The last lockdown measures remaining in place in France in 2021 were lifted at the end of June. With that in mind, French consumers were still impacted by some lockdown measures in 2021, for about half of the year. The number of stay-at-home…

At the end of 2020 and in early 2021, eggs faced issues with prices due to feed costs. Indeed, there were increases in feed costs for all agricultural sectors. In the case of eggs, producers had difficulties channelling these cost increases down to…

Warehouse clubs remain a niche retail category in France as only one outlet remained in operation mid-2021, under the operation of the US-origin chained Costco upon its entry into the country in June 2017. The introduction of this business model has…

In a continuation from 2020, the ongoing difficult context of the pandemic in 2021 further revealed the fragility and the obsolescence of the homeshopping business model. This channel’s sales fell further due to the relentless competition from…

Meat consumption through retail is still above pre-pandemic levels in 2021, but it has experienced a decline from 2020. As French consumers have gradually returned to out-of-home lifestyles and activities, eating occasions at home have declined. Pork…

While many consumers reduced the frequency of, or even eliminated, hair removal treatments from their beauty routines during 2020 due to the pandemic, other consumers who previously sought treatments in beauty salons opted to perform such procedures…

The impact of COVID-19 upon sanitary protection in France has been relatively limited with only small declines in retail value sales seen in both 2020 and 2021. Demand for these products is fairly fixed given the regularity of use by the menstruating…

Hosiery posted positive but rather disappointing value growth in 2021 in comparison with its double-digit decline in 2020, primarily due to the failed recovery of sheer hosiery, while the drop of non-sheer hosiery was curtailed twice in 2020. Women…

Given that human contact is the very essence of this channel, sales obviously collapsed during the first few weeks of the pandemic in 2020. The channel lost 70% of its sales in March and April 2020 according to the main direct selling trade…

While unable to reverse the long-term decline in air care, the COVID-19 pandemic did have a positive impact on the category. The bigger air care categories – electric, spray/aerosol and candle air fresheners – registered improved performances in…

While hair care resisted the impact of the pandemic during 2020, with a modest increase in retail constant value sales (2021 prices), the headline figure masked starkly contrasting trends across different categories. Retail constant value sales of…

Lockdowns drove retail constant value sales (2021 prices) of deodorants into decline during 2020, as consumers, forced to stay at home, reduced their beauty routines and took less care of their body odour. Throughout the year, social restrictions…