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Italian Market Insight: High Bills & Slow Sales Make Retailers Worried People
The economy is now predicted to see GDP growth of 0.4% for 2023, slightly better than a couple of months ago where a stagnation was predicted. If we can trust different expert sources then 2024 should see increased growth of 1.2%. Luckily inflation seems to get better month after month, especially because of lower energy costs. Petrol prices still remain at a high level, hitting nearly 2€ a litre, which for many consumers is hard to digest. Spending power for families is still not back at 2022 levels and this means less turnover for many small companies operating in the retail trade and food and beverage.
By Franz Hoeller
Many skate shops and streetwear stores really are struggling as sales have not grown as planned and costs are still higher than usual, a situation which also makes it hard for local distributors and brands as payments come in later than expected and SS24 pre-order sales will not hit SS23 levels.
September and October once again saw temperatures hit 30 degrees from north to south which saw Fall sales start slowly as consumers were being more active outside, doing sports and hanging out rather than shopping in the city centres. This is something we need to get used to as temperatures will not drop any earlier in the upcoming years. For snow retailers it’s too early to judge how the season will perform but at least most brands delivered on time and the shelves are full for the upcoming winter season.
On the store opening side we saw the first Blue Tomato stores in the northern part of Italy, with more stores coming in late 2023 and 2024. This is a situation which of course sees some smaller local store owners worried about being able to handle competition but on the other side it can also stimulate certain regions and communities. Competition stimulates the business, a wise man said.
When talking to boardsport store owners on how they see their future they mostly agree that we find ourselves in a transition phase where product requests are slower than usual, and we will need to get our heads down in late 2023 and early 2024 and that we then will soon see things picking up. Stock levels need to come down, manufacturing needs to slow down as we have come from a wild post corona ride and now it’s important to survive and be prepared for growth in the near future.
Stock levels are high not only for skateboard hardware but also for surf hardware which means very good discount deals for consumers with hardware offerings being the best in the market for many years, so no problem with inflation on the hardgoods side.
For snow retailers in the very north, freestyle skiing has become a true competitor to snowboarding and unfortunately the massive growth numbers for splitboards has slowed right down after crazy good corona numbers.
The 90´s skateboarding trend grabbed our skateboarding community everywhere and baggy jeans & pants, XXL or oversize T-shirts and bulky shoes are common. As Lukas Höller from Sub shop out of Bolzano says, it all comes in waves and what was a trend many years ago will always come back sometime. This style has not only been a trend for skateboarders in Italy but has really become a trend as a whole for many teenagers. Unfortunately, traditional skate shoe brands cannot really benefit from this as the big sneaker brands still rule the shoe market as a whole.
Hopefully winter kicks in soon as we are getting into November and temperatures are still too high, good for skateboarding but bad for snow sales and snowboarding itself. This will be a season where stores for sure compete for every customer, as discounts are around everywhere and are bigger and earlier than usual.
