Decline in sales in textiles or decoration, sluggish attendance, withdrawal of buyers towards the entry level: inflation has caused a
“collapse”
in consumption at the end of 2023, the specialized trade federation Procos indicated on Tuesday.
The “
bad sales
” of winter ended a
“very difficult”
year 2023 for businesses, which had nevertheless observed a
“fairly strong rebound in the summer”
, followed by a
“collapse”
of sales since September, explained its general delegate Emmanuel Le Roch during a press conference.
From Etam to McDonald's via King Cadeau, Procos says it brings together 310 brands from various sectors spread over 60,000 points of sale, together weighing 100 billion euros in turnover.
If overall sales increased by 3.5% year-on-year in 2023, the annual results show a
“large heterogeneity”
between sectors, according to Emmanuel Le Roch.
At the head of the queue, beauty sales are growing (+7.9% over one year), as are specialized food (butchers or bakeries for example, +3.7%) and catering (+4.5%). , when the clothing (-1.1%), footwear (-3%), or toy (-1.5%) sectors saw their sales decline for the second consecutive year.
Although dynamic in 2022, the home sector is also
“very degraded”
this year (-2.6%).
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Retreat towards entry-level products
Setbacks essentially due to
"arbitrage"
carried out by consumers: seeing their purchasing power decrease due in particular to price increases in food or electricity,
"constrained spending"
, they reduced their
"purchases "
pleasure”
, interpreted Emmanuel Le Roch.
If
the “appetite to consume”
continued to exist, the average attendance of the stores monitored by Procos fell by 2.3% over one year, on the one hand, and customers changed their way of consuming, on the other hand, by turning, according to the general delegate of Procos, towards more discount brands:
“Instead of going to Carrefour they go to
Action
, instead of going to Camaïeu, they go to Primark.”
The success experienced in 2023 by the company Adopt, which offers small format perfumes much cheaper than luxury perfume brands, demonstrates, for example, a decline towards entry-level products.
Disinflation is beginning, according to INSEE, and
“purchasing power should rise”
in 2024, continued Emmanuel Le Roch,
“but the problem is that the French are not aware of it
,” he said. he worries.
In January 2024, the turnover of the brands monitored by Procos fell by 1.5% year-on-year.