Mintel’s Clothing Retailing Summary focuses on the five major economies in Europe (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK). This report provides market dynamics, consumer behaviour, and retailer activity to give you a complete picture of the European clothing retail market in 2023.
Key Issues Covered in this Report
- The impact of the cost-of-living crisis on the clothing retail sector
- Analysis of the size of the specialist clothing retailers sector and forecast for the next five years
- The opportunities and threats facing brands in clothing retail
- The performance of the major clothing retailers in 2022
- The main channels used to purchase clothes and how this is evolving
- How clothing shopping behaviours have changed as a result of the cost of living crisis
- The role of online and the impact of online-only specialists
Europe Clothing Retail Market Size
Pent-up demand for clothing following the pandemic continued to drive sales in 2022. The combined clothing specialists’ sales of the five leading economies covered in this report series reached €156.5 billion.
Clothing Retail in Europe – Key Trends
- Paying for returns a key barrier: Our consumer research confirms that there is clear resistance to paying return fees. Indeed, between 41% (France) and 48% (Italy) of shoppers in Europe chose a clothing retailer that didn’t charge for returns. Retailers need to offer their customers solutions which allow them to avoid/minimise fees they pay for returns.
- Sustainability presents good prospects: Consumers will be looking for alternative retail models around sustainability and the circular economy when shopping for clothing. As such, between 37% (Germany, UK) and 42% (Italy, Spain) of European consumers would choose a more sustainable clothing retailer/brand over another in the future.
Purchase the full report for a comprehensive overview of the Europe eCommerce market. Readers of this report may be interested in Mintel’s Europe Online Retailing Summary.
Expert Analysis from a Retail Specialist
This report, written by Utku Tansel, a leading retail analyst, delivers in-depth commentary and analysis to highlight current trends in the clothing retail market in Europe and add expert context to the numbers.
Following the post-pandemic sales boom and with ongoing cost-of-living worries, sustainability, exclusives and experiential retail offer good prospects in clothing.
Utku Tansel
Retail Analyst
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- Key issues covered in this Report
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Executive Summary
- Opportunities for the clothing retailing market
- Graph 1: clothing shopping behaviours, have done in the last 12 months, 2023
- Graph 2: clothing shopping behaviours, haven’t done but interested in doing so in the future, 2023
- Graph 3: clothing shopping behaviours, haven’t done but interested in doing so in the future, 2023
- Market dynamics and outlook
- Graph 4: total sales of specialist clothing retailers (including VAT), 2018-27
- Graph 5: sales of specialist clothing retailers by country, 2019-27
- Graph 6: total sales of specialist clothing retailers (including VAT), 2018-27
- Graph 7: consumer spending on clothing by country (including VAT), 2018-23
- Channels of distribution
- Graph 8: proportion of clothing buyers shopping in-store and online, by country, 2023
- Graph 9: clothing shoppers who have bought in-store, 2023
- What consumers want and why
- Graph 10: top two most shopped retailers for online clothing retailing and % of shoppers who bought clothing online from each one, by country, 2023*
- Graph 11: top two most shopped retailers for in-store clothing retailing and % of shoppers who bought clothing in-store from each one, by country, 2023*
- Graph 12: clothing shopping behaviours, haven’t done but interested in doing so in the future, 2023
- Retailer activity
- Graph 13: leading clothing retailers market shares, 2022/23
- Launch activity and innovation
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Market Dynamics
- Market size and forecast
- Graph 14: big five European countries sales of specialist clothing retailers (excluding VAT), 2018-23
- Graph 15: total sales of specialist clothing retailers (including VAT), 2018-27
- Graph 16: sales of clothing retailers as % of all retail, including VAT, 2022
- Graph 17: total sales of specialist clothing retailers (including VAT), 2018-27
- Graph 18: sales by clothing specialists as % total spending on clothing, 2022
- Graph 19: big five countries, sales of specialist clothing retailers (including VAT) and forecast, 2023-27
- Graph 20: consumer spending on clothing by country (including VAT), 2018-23
- Graph 21: total consumer spending on clothing (including VAT), 2018-22
- Graph 22: clothing specialists sales as a proportion of total consumer spending on clothing (including VAT), %, 2018-22
- Macro-economic factors
- Graph 23: financial wellbeing by country, 2023
- Graph 24: future financial confidence, 2023
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What Consumers Want and Why
- How they shop for clothing
- Graph 25: proportion of clothing buyers shopping in-store and online, by country, 2023
- Graph 26: channels used for buying clothes in the last 12 months, 2023
- Graph 27: clothing shoppers who have bought in-store, 2023
- Where they shop for clothing
- Graph 28: top two most shopped retailers for online clothing retailing and % of shoppers who bought clothing online from each one, by country, 2023*
- Graph 29: top two most shopped retailers for in-store clothing retailing and % of shoppers who bought clothing in-store from each one, by country, 2023*
- Selected behaviours when shopping for clothing
- Graph 30: clothing shopping behaviours, have done in the last 12 months, 2023
- Graph 31: clothing shopping behaviours, haven’t done but interested in doing so in the future, 2023
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Retailer Activity
- Key metrics and market share
- Graph 32: leading clothing specialists market shares, 2022/23
- Launch activity and innovation
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Individual Country Reports
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Appendix
- Supplementary data – detailed market size
- Report scope
- Definitions
- Methodology
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