The 2024-2025 winter sales, which end on Friday 31 January, have failed to deliver results for independent clothing stores, according to statistics from the Flemish associations Mode Unie and Unizo.
Sales dropped by an average of 8.2% compared to the same period last year, prompted by poor weather conditions which kept shoppers away from shopping streets. Earlier this week, the Union of Middle Classes (UCM) announced a similar negative assessment of the winter retail period.
Mode Unie and Unizo surveyed 121 clothing retailers about their winter sales results. The findings show that 54.5% of them sold less than during the same period last year, while 28.1% sold the same amount. Only 17.4% reported increased sales.
"The grey winter weather and unfavourable global news impacted this sales period, severely affecting consumer morale," remarked Isolde Delanghe, director of Mode Unie, in a press release.
Retailers did not face significant stock issues, as around three-quarters of them purchased fewer items to sell as part of their winter 2024 collection. On average, fashion retailers bought 8.3% less merchandise, the survey showed.
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Mode Unie represents independent fashion retail entrepreneurs in Flanders. It called on the Belgian authorities to ensure an equal playing field with foreign online giants such as Temu and Shein, suggesting measures such as banning free returns and enforcing anti-dumping regulations.
Despite the gloomy results, clothing retailers are still optimistic about achieving the same turnover in the spring-summer 2025 season as they did during the same busy season in 2024.