What you need to know
Despite the challenging domestic economic environment, France’s department store sector sales grew an estimated 1% in 2014, bucking the 0.7% decline in all retail sales (excl. VAT). The department store groups’ flagship stores in Paris were by far and away the biggest revenue generators with their unique in-store experience attracting wealthy overseas tourists visiting the capital. The groups’ stores outside of Paris performed less well, as local French consumers’ spend on big ticket items and other typical department store product categories was curtailed as the domestic economy struggled.
The significant pick-up in the French economy and consumer spend in 2015 should have seen the department store sector make more sales gains in that year. But it didn’t. The sector’s fortunes went into reverse. The terrorist attacks on Paris resulted in a drop in overseas visitors to France and store sales at flagship outlets were hit hard. Stores in the provinces fared little better.
Worryingly for French department stores, only 35% of our consumer sample had visited a department store – either in-store or online - in the six months to March 2016, the lowest proportion of all the countries covered in our Department Stores – Europe, April 2016 report.
Areas covered in this report
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 one 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 a 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 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.
