Intimo più mare n° 223 | Luglio 2021

ENGLISH TRANSLATION
FOCUS [on page 22]
Fashion system scenarios and forecasts
Fashion numbers from lockdown and post-lockdown.
Comparisons with the rest of Europe. What are the
first months of 2021 telling us. On- and offline consumption.
Made in Italy and sustainability.
A peek at 2023. These are the issues examined by Sita
Ricerca in order to take stock after a year of pandemic
All the fashion numbers from the lockdown and
post-lockdown. Comparisons with the rest of Europe.
What are the first months of 2021 telling us. On- and
offline consumption. Made in Italy and sustainability:
new orientations and new behaviors, but at what
cost? A look into the future: 2021-2023. These are
the issues examined during the presentation by Sita
Ricerca which from the very beginning of the lockdown
began diligently monitoring the constantly
evolving and changing situation with its Fashion and
Health Emergency Report, a monthly review of research
into the Italians’ attitudes and behaviors during
the course of a health crisis.
THE COVID-19 IMPACT
Covid-19 had a major impact on fashion sales
throughout all of Europe, hitting Southern Europe
with particular force. The impact of the health crisis
on people’s personal financial situation, the tendency
to save and shop for bargains greatly reduced consumer
spending. Italy, which had been limping along
for years anyway, closed 2020 down 25%, compared
with the average drop of 21% for the Big 6 according
to the Fashion Consumer Panel, an Italian consumer
observatory active for the last thirty years.
“The store closures caused online sales to soar
throughout all of Europe,” explained Fabio Savelli,
a Sita Ricerca partner. “In Italy they accounted for a
24% share, doubling over 2019 (13%), putting Italy at
the top of the list, even surpassing France, although
to a much lesser degree than the United Kingdom
(48%).”
During the first quarter of 2021, given the continuation
of an albeit uneven lockdown situation, the
apparel and accessory market in Italy is down -10%
from its performance in 2020, but with a recovery in
positive territory of 4% for the intimate apparel sector
and the children’s sector (posting the same value
as in 2020) which enjoyed the advantage of being
able to remain open. Overall quarterly performance,
however, is down some 30% from 2019. The greatest
drops are among accessories (- 23%), men’s outerwear
(- 20%) and women’s outerwear (- 12%). Footwear
has seen a smaller drop (- 7%).
With the announcement of a reopening the perception
of a negative economic impact in terms of personal
finances expressed by 55% of those questioned
last year, by April of 2021 has dropped (25%). And
while the trend toward saving is still strong, interest
in purchasing items at discounted sale prices is dropping
in favor of full-priced items, moving up from
30 to 36%, confirming the returning desire to shop,
even for merchandise at full price. When it comes to
where the shopping is done, physical locations are
still being penalized, with better performance in urban
boutiques (- 5% from 2020) compared with the
large shopping malls (- 26%) and Fashion Outlets
(- 39%), always closed on weekends during the first
three months of 2021.
ONLINE IS GOING STRONG
In terms of distribution formats, due to the closings
online shopping continues to be very popular, accounting
for 23% (24% in 2020) of market share in
terms of value, stealing resources from all the brickand-mortar
stores, especially independent multi-label
operations that have registered a 34% drop
in terms of value and the itinerant vendors (- 31%).
Single-label stores and food stores are sustaining
less losses, respectively to the tune of 3 and 2%. The
pure players (Amazon & C) continue to rack up good
performance figures (+ 16%). The online phenomenon
deserves special attention. Italian e-shoppers in
the world of fashion amounted to some 15.5 million
souls in 2019. Over the course of 2020 the lockdown
doubtlessly accelerated the growth of this phenomenon,
involving some 20 million shoppers. And today,
over a year from the beginning of the pandemic and
the first lockdown, the number stands at 24 million.
“This sort of situation would have been unimaginable
two years ago,” Fabio Savelli was eager to point out.
“The pandemic has transformed the omnichannel
approach due to all the various investments on the
part of all retailers destined to bring about an irreversible
change in the world of retail.”
Indeed, there doesn’t even seem to be any stopping
the so-called brick&click phenomenon, i.e. an
approach that does not involve the pure players but