The department store sector in Italy saw weak growth of only 0.5% in 2017 to an estimated €1.05 billion as one of the two main players in the market, Coin, is suffering from falling sales. There are only two major department store chains in Italy: Coin and La Rinascente. La Rinascente, which stands out as the leading department store chain in Italy by sales, has seen turnover increase helped by its flagship store in Milan, which has benefited from an increase in Chinese tourists. By contrast, Coin is facing declining sales growth and has closed two of its Coin Excelsior stores in Verona and Milan. The company was sold to Centenary Spa in March 2018 and the plan is modernise the business and revitalise the format.

Italians primarily view department stores as a good place to discover new brands and products and to look for inspiration, with over three-quarters (76%) of shoppers agreeing with these statements. Both Coin and Rinascente have been promoting up-and-coming designers. Rinascente’s Milan store features a Design Supermarket where people can admire and buy products by new designers. Coincasa is looking to broaden its appeal through a focus on its Best of Italy product range, which is a capsule collection by Italian designers that was presented first as an exhibition and then sold in a selection of stores and online.

This report covers the department store sector in Italy, 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

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