The price increase promised by retailers in 2015 made Russians rush into shopping: Watcom research company recorded an unprecedented increase in traffic in shopping centers in Moscow and St. Petersburg. For example, the number of visitors to household appliances and electronics stores on Saturday – Sunday, December 20–21, increased by more than 30% compared to the same weekend last year.
Retailers warned that next year, price increases are inevitable, and buyers began a real hunt for merchandise leftovers at old prices.
The Shopping Index, calculated by Watcom (the average number of customers per 1 thousand square meters of retail space in 59 malls in Moscow and 38 in St. Petersburg), shows that over the weekend, on December 20 – 21, stores faced an unusually high influx of customers - even taking into account the New Year hype.
“If from the beginning of the year we see an increase in traffic in our Tsvetnoy shopping center by an average of 25 percent, then over the past few weeks the growth has increased to 30–33 percent,” says Petr Isaev, Rose Group Deputy General Director. “We associate these changes, first of all, with the anomalous desire of the population to get rid of rubles.”
In the Tashir group, attendance at the company's shopping centers both in Moscow and in the regions grew by 20 – 30% compared to the same period last year. Especially high demand in Tashir for household appliances, electronics and household goods, there is a marked increase in interest in clothing and food products, said the representative of Tashira.
According to the marketing director of the Afimall City shopping center Eva Snegovskaya, in December the company expects traffic growth by an average of 15% by December 2013 of the year.
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