Destockers, discounters, outlets… Anti-inflation trade does not know the crisis

2023-05-02 06:54:09

While many ready-to-wear brands are closing their doors, stores that practice low prices are flourishing in the French shopping landscape.

Camaïeu, Burton of London, Pimkie, André, San Marina: in recent months, all these ready-to-wear brands have had to lower the curtain. Conversely, destockers, discounters and other outlets have been expanding with a third of additional stores since 2019. Example in Douains, near Vernon (Eure), with the opening of a brand village. Fanfare, Ferris wheel, entertainment: nothing is too good to celebrate the opening of these 20,000 m² high-end shops. Even Miss France 2021 is there. Monclerc, Lacoste, Adidas, Karl Lagerfeld, Vanessa Bruno, Tod’s or Stella McCartney, luxury at reduced prices: 30% off for past collections, that’s the principle of the outlet.

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In this place, the objective is to sell and entertain customers for three or four hours. Bernard intends to pass “all morning, even early afternoon”. The owner, the British McArthurGlen, has invested more than 200 million euros in the Normandy site. “We’re not just in the mall, explains the boss France, Christophe Deshayes. We have the catering, the playground, we insist on all that is green. A green wall to give the feeling of nature. It has a psychological effect on customers.” The group pays great attention to the toilets. “We’re obsessed with having toilets that are comfortable and smell good.continues Christophe Deshaye. A lot of little details that make customers feel good.”

The French Stokomani also claims a careful reception of customers. The destocker has just unveiled its new store concept: tidy, colors, light, there is no question of having to rummage through dusty boxes. And it works. The chain claims 30,000 to 50,000 new customers each week. With, always, prices crushed up to 70% thanks to nuggets of goods, like these lots bought back from Camaïeu when it closed, but which had to be shared with Noz, a major competitor. “We bought three million pieces of Camaïeu stock from the new spring-summer 2023 collectionexplains Damien Defforey, president of Stokomani. But these signs that are closing are still quite marginal for us. We have suppliers who are doing well and for them it’s a service when they have overstocks. We need suppliers Suppliers need us. In order not to have stores that are frozen six months in the year, as is often the case in textile stores, we said: you can come every week, there will always be new products and good business.”

The battle for the best locations

It is called anti-inflation trade: more than 10% growth per year for the bazaar and daily products sector, 11 billion euros in turnover and more than 4,000 points of sale in France. The German Tedi has just arrived, the Dutch Action has become the favorite brand of the French. But experts predict market saturation. That’s why you shouldn’t miss the best shopping locations.

Example with the Danish Normal which has 90 stores in France and probably 120 at the end of the year, according to its director France Sébastien Chirouze: “We have expansion managers who set off to explore France, shopping centers, city centers. They meet the ownershe explains. And when you have five people just looking for goods and trading them, then you can open quite a few stores.” “It’s not that easy, he adds, we still have competitors who are looking for the same places with the same size of store and therefore the rents are not crushed. There is no low-cost in rents.”

“We are looking for dozens and dozens of stores all over France.

Sébastien Chirouze, Director France Normal

at franceinfo

Competition is fierce for traditional stores, “old” according to Rémi Le Druillenec, distribution expert, co-founder of the Héroïne agency and author of Is the store dead? “The model as it has been practiced for years is dying out because today the low price is found from home 24 hours a day. So good reasons are going to be needed to move, he deciphers. These downtown businesses will either look for low prices, without being on equal terms with digital, or adopt an upmarket strategy with a real merchant-customer relationship.

Rémi Le Druillenec says to himself “convinced” prices will follow in the coming months. “There is going to be an even fiercer war, driven by inflation, and on the other side, a rise in price range, with a brand that makes us dream.” But with still, for the time being, an inflation which forces households to reduce their consumption expenditure.