There are just two major department store chains in Italy and their fortunes have diverged in recent years. La Rinascente has forged ahead with sales increasing by around 17% in 2014/15 driven by investment from its parent company, new store space and its 150^th anniversary celebrations. Its main competitor, Coin, has not performed quite so well with sales up by an estimated 2%, slightly above the overall growth in consumer spending.

Despite having higher sales, La Rinascente operates from far fewer stores and as a result it is less frequently visited than Coin. 28% of Italian consumers have visited a Coin store in the past six months compared to 23% that have visited a La Rinascente store.

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.