Western Europe

The outbreak of COVID-19, followed by the war in Ukraine, has led to high inflation rates in Portugal throughout 2023. Despite apparel and footwear products only witnessing moderate price increases, energy and packaged food saw high rises, impacting…

Apparel and footwear in Norway is expected to see a decline in retail volume terms and a modest current value sales increase in 2023, boosted by inflation and rising unit prices. The notably lower growth in 2023 follows two years of growth, which saw…

Apparel and footwear is projected to record strong retail current value growth over 2023, albeit slower than in 2021 and 2022, when sales rebounded from a lower base following the slump caused by the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Nonetheless, most…

Inflation and the cost of living crisis affected the performance of apparel and footwear in Greece in 2023, with price increases resulting in substantial current value growth across all categories. Volume sales increased, too, post-COVID-19; however,…

In Germany, inflation and interest rates have remained high in 2023, and real GDP has remained relatively flat, negatively affecting consumer spending and demand for non-essential goods such as fashion items. Despite the expectation of an increase…

Apparel and footwear in France is seeing an overall volume slump in 2023, while value is supported by inflation pushing up unit prices, thus giving an artificial perspective of positive performance. Whilst we did see a robust volume uptick in the…

Overall, apparel and footwear continued to witness positive current value growth in 2023, although as in the previous year much of this growth was driven by inflation and retail price increases. In the face of these higher prices and costs of living,…

After two challenging years due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the recovery of apparel and footwear started in earnest in 2022, but retail volume sales did not return to the 2019 level. On the other hand, high inflationary pressure on…

Western European sales of apparel accessories were already falling prior to 2020, with the arrival of Coronavirus (COVID-19) in the region then resulting in significant declines in nearly all categories in 2020. The exception was other apparel…

Many local consumers prefer to make frequent small purchases, such as apparel accessories, in order to stylise their look without having to spend on larger, more expensive items of apparel, or at least delay their purchase. This behaviour is…