Table of Contents
Executive summary
-
- The market
- Consumer spending
-
- Figure 1: Italy: trends in annual consumer spending on footwear, clothing and all items, 2015-20
- Sector size and forecast
- Channels of distribution
- Companies and brands
- Key metrics
- Market shares
-
- Figure 2: Italy: leading footwear specialists’ estimated shares of total specialist footwear retailer’s sales, 2020
- Online
- The consumer
- How they shop
-
- Figure 3: Italy: how footwear purchased by respondents or for their children in the past 12 months, January 2021
- Where they shop
-
- Figure 4: Italy: where footwear has been purchased in past 12 months, January 2021
- Footwear shopping attitudes and behaviours
-
- Figure 5: Italy: attitudes and behaviours relating to footwear, January 2021
Impact of COVID-19 on Footwear Retailing
-
- Short, medium and long term impact on the sector
-
- Figure 6: Short, medium and long term impact of COVID-19 on online grocery retailing, April 2021
- Opportunities and threats
- Limiting time in-store could present new opportunities
-
- Figure 7: Decathlon’s ‘scan & go’ service, 2020
- Using technology to enhance service
- Providing a feeling of shopping in-store from home
- Brands experiment with new store formats
-
- Figure 8: Dr Martens pop-up at German department store Breuninger, Stuttgart, 2020
- Casualisation: a threat to formal and occasion driven footwear?
- How COVID-19 will reshape the industry
- Sustainability will be high on the agenda
-
- Figure 9: Upcycled Melissa x Rombaut collaboration, 2021
-
- Figure 10: The Voronoi runner fully biodegradable trainer, 2020
- Rapid delivery could be a key differentiator going forwards
- Brands leverage Augmented Reality to help customers see how shoes will look
- The physical and the digital increasingly merge
- Discounters could strengthen their position in footwear
- The impact of COVID-19 on consumer behaviour across Europe
- COVID-19 concerns remain steady
-
- Figure 11: Europe: Those extremely worried about the risk of being exposed to COVID-19, March 2020-April 2021*
- Financial impact of crisis begins to be felt but worse still to come
-
- Figure 12: Europe: Financial impact of COVID-19, March 2021*
- More than half of Italians cutting back on non-essential spending
- Concern about spending time in-store highest in mainland Europe
- Click and collect helps to boost online capacity
- Contactless payment demand rises
- Local businesses benefit from consumers wishing to stay close to home
- Online shopping boom
-
- Figure 13: Europe: Changes to shopping behaviour since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, April 2021*
- Clothing and footwear continues to be low spending priority
-
- Figure 14: Net balance* of expected spending on selected items in the next month, April 2021**
- Italians most likely to be planning to spend less on clothing and footwear
-
- Figure 15: Europe: expected spending on clothing and accessories (including footwear) in the next month, April 2021*
- How the crisis is impacting on key consumer segments
- Women tend to be more concerned about the virus
-
- Figure 16: Europe: Those extremely worried about the risk of being exposed to COVID-19, by gender and age, April 2021*
- Growth in online shopping is across the board
-
- Figure 17: Europe: consumers shopping more online, by gender and age, April 2021*
- Women and older people trying to limit time spent in-store
-
- Figure 18: Europe: consumers trying to limit the time they spend in-store, by gender and age, April 2021*
- Older people most likely to be shopping more from local businesses
-
- Figure 19: Europe: consumers shopping more from local businesses, by gender and age, November 2020*
- COVID-19: Market context
- UK
- France
- Germany
- Italy
- Spain
Issues and insights
-
- COVID-19 shifts footwear spending patterns and moves sales online
- Value sales dip more than volumes due to trading down
- Growth in online sales
- An opportunity to increase focus on footcare
- Stores can become more experiential…
- …and focus on what they do best
- Focus on fit
- A wider role?
- What other ways can footwear specialists differentiate themselves?
- Customer service and flexible payment opportunities
- Sustainability: retailers need to look at rental, second-hand and recycling
- A dedicated sustainability area?
- Stocking local products
The market – Key takeaways
-
- COVID damages an already weak economy
- Spending on footwear falls by nearly a quarter
- Specialist footwear retailers endure a difficult 2020…
- …and 2021 set to be little different
Consumer spending
-
- COVID damages an already weak economy
- Footwear spending suffers as a result of lockdown
-
- Figure 20: Italy: Consumer spending on footwear (including VAT), 2015-20
- Market trends
- A growing trend of localism
- Sustainability is becoming an increasing priority
Sector size and forecast
-
-
- Figure 21: Italy: comparison of indexed monthly retail sales of footwear, leather goods and travel items, 2018-20
-
- Figure 22: Italy: Footwear retailers’ sales, excluding VAT, 2016-20
-
- Figure 23: Italy: Footwear retailers’ sales, Forecasts, excluding VAT, 2021-25
- Inflation
-
- Figure 24: Italy: Consumer Prices, annual % change, 2016-20
- Figure 25: Italy: Consumer price inflation on footwear, clothing and all items annual % change, January 2020-February 2021
-
- Figure 26: Italy: Consumer price inflation on footwear by detailed sector, January 2020-February 2021
- Channels of distribution
-
Companies and brands – Key takeaways
-
- A fragmented market
- Retailers adopting a variety of channels
- Flexible payment option could help retailers to differentiate themselves
- Online takes off
Leading players
-
- Globo
- Bata
- Foot Locker
- PittaRosso
- Scarpe&Scarpe
- Other leading players
-
- Figure 27: Italy: Leading specialist footwear retailers, sales, 2016-20
-
- Figure 28: Italy: Leading specialist footwear retailers, outlet numbers, 2016-20
Market shares
-
-
- Figure 29: Italy: Leading specialist footwear retailers: shares of specialist footwear retailers’ sales*, 2016-20
-
Online
-
- Online activity
- Shopping for footwear online
- Online sales of footwear
- Leading online players
-
- Figure 30: Italy: trends in Google searches for leading specialist footwear retailers, January 2020-April 2021
The consumer – Key takeaways
-
- Sizing technology could help shift more sales online
- Potential for D2C
- Specialists need to focus on what they do best
- An opportunity to improve levels of customer loyalty
- Scope for offering more flexible payment options
How they shop for footwear
-
-
- Figure 31: Italy: Purchasing of any footwear in past 12 months, 2017-21
-
- Figure 32: Italy: how footwear purchased by respondents or for their children in the past 12 months, January 2021
-
- Figure 33: Italy: in-store and online shoppers, how they break down by type, January 2021
-
- Figure 34: Italy: key footwear shopper demographics (purchasers of any footwear for themselves or their children in the past 12 months), January 2021
-
Where they shop for footwear
-
-
- Figure 35: Italy: where footwear has been purchased in past 12 months, January 2021
- Independent shoe shops appeal most to older buyers
-
- Figure 36: Italy: where footwear has been purchased in past 12 months (footwear specialists), by age, January 2021
- Affluent households most likely to buy from independents
-
- Figure 37: Italy: where footwear has been purchased in past 12 months (footwear specialists), by net monthly household income, January 2021
- Multiple specialists heavily reliant on children’s footwear
-
- Figure 38: Italy: where footwear has been purchased in past 12 months (footwear specialists), by presence of children under 22 in the household, January 2021
- Footwear specialists have poor penetration among online-only shoppers
-
- Figure 39: Italy: where footwear has been purchased in past 12 months, by how they shop for footwear, January 2021
-
- Figure 40: Italy: where footwear has been purchased in past 12 months, by where footwear has been purchased in past 12 months (selected retailers), January 2021
-
Footwear shopping attitudes and behaviours
-
- Focus on value likely to increase
- COVID-19 impacts on formal footwear
- Shopper interest in help with online fitting/sizing technology could help retailers reduce return rates
- Investment required in making returns process as frictionless as possible
- Potential threat from direct-to-consumer channel?
- COVID-19 dividend for sales of sports/exercise footwear
-
- Figure 41: Italy: attitudes and behaviours relating to footwear, January 2021
- Sizing advice will reinforce existing online shoppers rather than attract in-store shoppers, who are more concerned about returns
-
- Figure 42: Italy: agreement with statements about sizing advice and returns (% answering yes), by channel used to shop for footwear, January 2021
- Younger consumers particularly interested in buying direct from social media
-
- Figure 43: Italy: agreement with statements about buying footwear directly from a social media page (% answering yes), by age, January 2021
Appendix – Data sources and abbreviations
-
- Abbreviations
- Data sources
Back to top