São Paulo – Despite a reduction in the COVID-19 pandemic and the reopening of brick-and-mortar retail around the world, consumers keep on buying fashion products like footwear online. Last year, when most stores closed to curb the spread of the virus, the option was acquiring via e-commerce. This year, despite decreasing social distancing measures, online fashion sales are still on the rise.
So said the figures put forth by the Brazilian Footwear Industry Association (Abicalçados) on Wednesday (6) based on the performance of the Global Fashion Group, whichown online stores like Dafiti, Zalora, La Moda, and The Iconic. Sales increased in the third quarter this year from a year ago, when COVID-19 was fully spreading.
“We are comparing with a basis during the pandemic, but we see interesting growths both in goods net value in euro in e-commerce and the number of active clients,” Abicalçados Market Intelligence coordinator Priscila Linck (pictured above) said in an online event that provided Brazilian footwear manufactures with information on the international fashion landscape and prospects for the upcoming year.
In Latin America, online sales of the Global Fashion Group were up by 21.4% in Q2 year on year. The customer base was up 20.4% and the average purchase value was up 11.8%. In Southeast Asia, sales were up by 23.6% in value, 3.4% in the customer base, and 26.3% in the consumption per person. In the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), these numbers were up 32.5%, 20.4% and 12.1%, respectively, while New Zealand and Australia were up 67.5%, 14.3%, and 16.7%, respectively.
The Abicalçados’ coordinator gave an overview on the Brazilian footwear production and exports. National manufacturing is not expected to rebound to pre-pandemic levels in 2022, but exports are. The domestic market buys a large part of national production, and its increase depends on thinks like income and employment generation. “In 2021, we saw a recovery situation, but it’s still below 2019 levels. We’re increasing from 2020, but we aren’t reaching 2019 levels,” Linck said on the manufacturing.
Exports are up
In volume, footwear exports have already increased from 2019’s pre-COVID-19 levels. Year to date through September, they reached 86.2 million pairs, up from 64.5 million pairs a year ago and from 85.4 million pair two years ago. Abicalçados expects an increase in total exports volume of 25.5% from a year ago and in 2022 of 5.1% from 2021. But revenues are not believed to follow this movement since many companies are lowering footwear dollar prices to be more competitive overseas.
Priscila Linck showed that, out of the five top footwear consumer markets, three have reached pre-pandemic levels in the first half of the year. They are the United States, Germany and France. The United Kingdom and Japan, ranking fourth and fifth among the global largest markets, respectively, still exported less in H1 from 2019. These numbers refer to overall footwear purchase, not only from Brazil.
Economy
In addition to Linck, the presentation featured Economy doctor and sectoral consultant Marcos Lélis, who gave an overview on the global macroeconomic landscape and the current situation and prospects for the Brazilian economy. All presentations can be watched on Abicalçados’ YouTube channel.
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
