Although COVID-19 is still dominating most of our conversations and making headlines in the news, most of our panel experts believe that businesses will have a positive evolution. Read about this in our most recent bulletin of World Footwear Business Conditions Survey
This is the main outcome of the most recent edition of the World Footwear Business Conditions Survey, conducted during the month of October. Today we bring you a summary of some of the main conclusions
In recent months, the Textile Retail Index (including Clothing & Footwear) in Germany compares well to the pre-pandemic 2019 data. However, one must remember that 2019 was a terrible year for the German economy. As we write this Retail Flash, the consumer price index for footwear is following the upwards movement of prices in general and retailers are now looking on how to offset higher costs of raw materials and logistics in footwear imported from overseas. That said, it seems too early to claim victory on the retail performance in Germany
Retail Sales Index in specialized stores in Spain are still some 20 percentage points below the pre-pandemic levels, registered in 2019. Confidence seems to be improving for consumers and retailers, but importers are more cautious. Online continues with a good performance, however, the online share is not enough to push retail up. Developments in the coming months will reveal the way for retail in Spain
The leader of footwear manufacturing and main exporter entered the top 10 of footwear importers in 2020. The Asian giant is also the country paying the highest average import price among the main consumers of footwear
According to the Shoe Price Report issued by the Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America (FDRA), footwear prices are increasing at the fastest rate in over 20 years, with year-to-date prices up by 3.2%
As vaccination levels increase and the restrictive measures are lifted the UK retail industry could be on the expectation that solid improvement would be on the way. However, Consumer Confidence has been fading away since July, and Textile, Clothing & Footwear store sales have been on a slide in the last few months. With the supply chain issues impacting the footwear industry and the lorries shortage, this could be a perfect storm for more bad news
Over the last decade, the average worldwide export price of footwear grew significantly and registered a record value of 10.37 US dollars in 2020. This is the highest value ever registered and represents growth of 56.7% compared to 2010 (when the average price was only 6.61 US dollars). Such variance points to an average annual growth in the footwear sector of 4.6% throughout this decade, while the general inflation of the economy was only 1.66%. Footwear prices grew almost three times more than the average registered for all goods
In 2020 footwear production and exports fell by 15.8% and 19% respectively. Data are taken from the World Footwear 2021 Yearbook just released by APICCAPS, the Portuguese Footwear Association. Previous forecasts were gloomier, and the World Footwear Experts Panel had pointed to a drop in global footwear consumption in 2020 of more than 20%. Final numbers for 2020 in the developed countries of Europe and North America are in line with such expectations. However, Asia and less developed countries outperformed expectations thus supporting a lower plunge in the global footwear industry
June started with some good perspectives as consumer morale in the Japanese market was the strongest in 16 months. However, the retailer’s sentiment is not accompanying, and a new State of Emergency in Tokyo is not promising good news. The Apparel & Accessories (including footwear) Retail Sales Index also suffered from less consumer confidence after March. And with no international visitors going to Japan to attend the Olympics, recovery chances of the retail industry will definitely be impacted
As the new pandemic wave seems to be fading away in Spain, indicators are improving. In the last two months with data available (March and April) Footwear Imports and the Textile, Clothing and Footwear (TCF) Retail Index performed much better than in 2020. Adding to list of good news is the consumers and retailers' confidence at their maximum scores since March 2020. With the online retail being at its maximum as well, the question now is whether omnichannel strategies from physical operators will be strong enough?
With the seasonally adjusted TCF (Textile, Clothing & Footwear) Retail Sales Index successfully resuming the 2018 baseline, a new Retail Normalcy is anticipated. Importers, on their side, have well sensed since February that retail was about to reignite, as depicted by the increase in the monthly footwear imports. As the vaccination process evolves favourably in the UK, Consumer Confidence in the country seems to be unstoppable
The local association is concerned with the idea of carrying out an unrestricted trade opening for foreign products, with the reduction of the tariffs on imports. The possibility to have an FTA with Vietnam and Indonesia is already in the process of public consultation
The off-price banner launched in 2015 by Macy is now on expansion mode. Considered a major success by Macy, who now decided to open 45 new shop-in-shops