Decade of ‘slow erosion’ takes its toll on Italy’s domestic shoe sector
18/09/2019
Sharing initial findings for trade in the first half of 2019 at the Micam exhibition in Milan in September, Assocal said that the value of exports had increased by 8.4% over the period, but that “serious concerns” remain.
These concerns include shrinking volumes and an increasingly wide gap between large brands and small and medium-sized enterprises. The organisation also identified “difficulties in several major overseas markets”. But the situation in the domestic market seemed to present the greatest cause for concern.
Assocal said there had been “a decade of slow erosion”, figures for the first six months of 2019 show a 3.7% drop in the volume of shoe sales to Italian consumers. There was a particularly sharp drop in sales in traditional shoe shops in Italian towns and cities; these sales volumes decreased by 11% in the first half compared to the same period in 2018.
Over the same period, online shoe sales increased by 10.3% in volume and by 17.3% in value. Assocal’s figures suggest that 11% of all footwear sales in Italy are online now and account for 13% of sales revenues.
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