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Footwear Retailing - Italy - April 2021

OVERVIEW
Key issues covered in this Report
Areas covered in this Report
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

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