“Left in leatherette”: retail plans to cut purchases for spring-summer 2012 of the year

For the Spring-Summer 2012 season, almost all retail companies are planning to cut purchases by 15-30%. These are the conclusions reached by the participants of the roundtable discussion on shoe retail. The round table was held on June 28 at the Radisson Royal Hotel (formerly "Ukraine"). It was organized by the editorial staff of Shoes Report magazine and Messe Dusseldorf Moscow.

Wholesalers, retail chains, and footwear market experts, including Axa, Max Distribution, Alfavit-Obuv, Zenden, Askania, Bot'for'ts, Empire Group and "Credo".

The reduction in purchases of the company is explained by large residuals from past seasons, as well as the fact that consumers, when they come to the store, prefer faux leather shoes and prefer to buy two pairs of shoes at a lower price than one, but expensive.

According to Elena Vinogradova, Commercial Director of Askania Group of Companies from Novosibirsk, the average bill has not changed in their network, if we take the last season, but the turnover has left much to be desired. In general, shoe stores in many cities in Siberia began selling earlier than usual, and immediately with deep discounts.

Representatives of the Bot'for'ts network operating in the North-West region and the Alphabet-Shoes network, whose stores are located in the Moscow Region and Central Russia, also reported a decline in 20% sales.

Natalia Guseva, Zenden Project Manager for Women’s Shoes, explained the increase in purchase prices for all shoe components, leather, fur, and outsole materials. Because of what, by the next fall-winter season, 2012 / 2013 shoes will rise in price by 30%.

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Only the director of the wholesale company Axa, Irina Lavrukhina, was optimistic. According to her, in their affiliate stores sales are growing. And even now, the sales volume largely depends on the ability and desire to work, on the ability to convey the value of the product to the final customer. “If you buy correctly, the increase in price does not affect sales,” says Irina Lavrukhina.

It was supported by the CEO of Max Distribution Sergey Donskoy, it should not be so much about the average bill, but about the fact that the company needs to clearly choose its positioning and follow it. Max Distribution, which works with designer shoes in the above-average segment, such as United Nude, is confident that their customers will reduce the number of pairs they buy, but will not go to the lower segment.

The participants discussed the possibility of introducing uniform sales periods in Russia and came to the conclusion that they are necessary.

The most heated discussion was caused by the issue of online sales of shoes, what risks they carry for ordinary retail, the new phenomenon of “cold fitting,” when shoes are tried on in stores only to be later ordered on the Internet. Ute Windhausen-Kiss, deputy director of the GDS Messe Dusseldorf exhibition, gave examples from German practice of how online sales increased purchases in ordinary stores.