It’s an expensive month. Tested by the December strikes, traders hope that the winter sales which begin this Wednesday will allow them to replenish their coffers, even if this commercial event attracts less crowds than before.
For the first time, these sales will therefore last four weeks, compared to six previously. As now enshrined in the Pact law, their duration has been reduced “at the request of traders and artisans so that the period is more intense”, recalled these days the Secretary of State for the Economy Agnès Pannier-Runacher .
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They will therefore end on February 4, knowing that they began on January 2 in certain neighboring departments and overseas according to traditional derogations.
Unlike other periods of commercial promotions (“Private sales”, “Black Friday”…), sales are the only times when traders can sell at a loss.
This is why, this year again, 80% of French people assure that they will do the sales, for an average basket of 193 euros, “a budget equivalent to that of last winter to within 2 euros”, according to the results of a survey carried out by the Ifop institute for the Spartoo shoe sales site.
Despite the strikes in transport, particularly in Paris, “58% of French consumers say that the context of current social movements will have no impact on their purchases, and 2% (to) will even devote a higher budget”.
Nevertheless, “20% of French people questioned intend to give up the sales, a percentage which remains high” and is largely explained by the multiplication of promotional periods throughout the year and an overall trend towards consumption.
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“Even if this event is now in competition and therefore less powerful – that’s why it had to be revised – it nevertheless remains part of the French spending calendar”, underlines Yves Marin, distribution expert. within the firm Bartle.
For merchants, the stakes are indeed high: “the winter and summer sales represent 30% of the volume of annual sales in clothing, it is more important than Christmas”, explains to AFP Yohann Petiot, the general manager of the Trade Alliance.
“Our members are (therefore) very worried”, he adds, the trends remaining negative these days, with significant losses of activity in Paris and in the big cities, “of the order of -25 to -30% on average”.
In Paris, according to Emmanuel Le Roch, general delegate of Procos, the Federation of specialized trade which represents 260 brands, “we were (rather) on declines in turnover of 18% on average on December 29”.
Private sales, which began the day after Christmas, help maintain turnover, he notes, because markdowns attract customers. But they reduce the level of margin over the year by the same amount.
As for the toy, food or catering sectors, for example, they do not benefit from the sales, recalls Emmanuel Le Roch. The catch-up in relation to the strikes, if it takes place, will therefore only be “partial”.
This is why Yohann Petiot calls on the government to go “further in the support measures” for traders and craftsmen announced in December: he pleads for “reductions for this period of strikes” and not only for deferrals of social charges and tax. And this, via an “automatic” procedure. Because, although simplified by Bercy, requests for postponement require administrative formalities which take time, he says.
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For Yves Marin, the conditions are nevertheless met to make these winter sales 2020 a “good” vintage: “there are stocks and money waiting to be spent, in particular because the ‘pleasure’ purchases were not made in December and would only ask to refer now”.
Unfortunately, nuance Yohann Petiot, “with the demonstrations and the blockages which are announced this week, the month of January is already proving difficult”.
