In 2019, consumer spending on the product categories traditionally sold by department stores increased by 1.9% to €72.2 billion. While all the categories had seen growth in spending, demand for furniture, household appliances and other homewares had grown faster than for fashion, personal care and brown goods in Spain.

Offering a wide range of products may therefore have shored up the growth in sales observed by El Corte Inglés, which is essentially the only department store chain operating in the country. The group saw revenues grow by 3.2% to €11.76 billion in 2018 and we estimate that sales will have increased by another 3.0% to €12.11 billion in 2019.

As competition from online and sector specialists increases, ECI has been focusing on making its stores a place to meet and have experiences, which ties in closely with what consumers currently want from department stores according to our consumer research.

• The impact of COVID-19 on consumer behaviour and the department store sector

• How the sector will fare in the post-COVID-19 slowdown

• The value of key department store product categories

• Leading department store performance in 2019.

This report covers the department store sector in Spain, including market sizes, retailers’ sales and forecasts, along with our in-depth consumer data, which analyses shoppers’ behaviour and attitudes.

There is no hard and fast definition for a department store. But, we would expect stores to typically trade from a minimum of 1,000 sq m and stock at least half a dozen different broad product categories, with any single category unlikely to account for more than two-thirds of turnover, and usually significantly less than this.

As a minimum, all department stores covered in this report sell adult and children’s apparel, lingerie, fashion accessories, footwear, beauty products and some homewares. Larger full-line stores have a much wider product assortment.

Some department stores have food halls, and these are typically upscale and geared towards fine foods and delicatessen, and so are differentiated from the everyday supermarket.

The offer usually covers a mix of concessions and own-bought ranges, increasingly with a private label element within the own-bought assortment.

National statistics offices do not collate data on the department store sector. Around Europe, department stores are typically included within the broader Mixed Goods Retailers sector. This is something of a catch-all sector covering not only large-space department stores, but also variety stores, non-food discount stores and a whole host of other retailers that do not specialise in any one particular non-food product category.

For our consumer research this year we asked respondents questions on the following topics:

• Which department stores they had shopped at

• What they bought from department stores

• Responses to a variety of attitudinal statements about department stores.