As the crucial festive shopping season is about to begin, French retail chain association Procos has published the sector’s revenue figures for January-September 2024. In total, the business of specialist retailers in France (catering, fashion, beauty, sporting goods, home decoration, etc.) grew modestly, with different results depending on the sector. On aggregate, in-store sales for these retailers grew by 1.8% in January-September 2024 compared to the previous year. The growth rate was slightly below inflation, so volume sales have generally stagnated.

In the period, the two leading sectors growth-wise were specialist food retailers (with sales up by 6.2%) and health & beauty chains (up by 5.7%). Opticians posted a 3% growth, culture-gifts-toys retailers grew by 1.5%, and catering chains also by 1.5%. The sectors in negative territory were sporting goods (down 0.8%), apparel (down 1.4%) and homewares (down 2%).

The period in question has been extremely tough for fashion chains in France, except for September, during which they posted exceptional results, recouping at least some of the lost ground. Fashion retailers’ in-store sales increased by a whopping 18.5% in September. Emmanuel Le Roch, executive director of Procos, welcomed this as a “reassuring result” for fashion chains, attributing it to “the weather’s positive influence and to a comparison effect, since [fashion chains] recorded a 15% slump in September 2023.”

Sport retail’s fall downturn

In September, health & beauty retailers recorded worse-than-usual results, with only a 1.6% rise in revenue over the previous year. Sporting goods chains also struggled, losing 3.5% in revenue. The sector did not benefit from the favourable weather effect that improved apparel sales in September, though it enjoyed a very successful August, boosted by the Paris 2024 Olympics.

In September, in-store footfall increased by 6.2% compared to 2023. However, the cumulative figures since January are negative, with a 2% downturn. Procos therefore observed a gap of nearly 4 percentage points with the sales increase recorded in the period. This reflected the impact of inflation but also a likely increase in conversion rate.

Online beats in-store

The online business of French retail chains in January-September 2024 posted better results than those recorded in-store. Online revenue in the period increased on aggregate by 5.2% compared to the same period in 2023. “The web outperformed physical stores, except in the catering and homewares sectors. These days, consumers are hunting for the best price, and e-tail has an advantage,” said Le Roch. E-tail sales by health & beauty retailers increased by a notable 11.8%, and those of apparel chains by 9%.

André Tordjmann, president of Procos, said that the mood ahead of the year-end festivities is “positive.” “It isn’t all just bad news and cost-cutting measures. [Retailers] are opening new stores, and testing new concepts. I think that specialist chains are keen to innovate,” he said. “Consumption has stuttered, but there hasn’t been an outright halt,” added Le Roch.

“Stores are becoming obsolete faster”

Among the many issues still causing concern, French retailers are hoping that the business simplification measures drawn up by France’s previous government will be approved by the Senate at the end of October. Procos intends to soon meet with the two new ministers with a mandate for trade, Antoine Armand, the Minister of the Economy, and Françoise Gatel, in charge of agricultural policy, trade and small business.

Tordjmann reiterated his rallying cry, urging retailers and public authorities to mobilise to make retail “appealing” for French consumers. He believes that “chains remain attractive for a shorter period of time” owing to the influx of new brands, and that “stores are becoming obsolete faster.” He concluded by saying that the sector “must absolutely continue to innovate and invest.”