What: L’Institut Français de la Mode’s (IFM) report details the disparities among different fashion retailers in France for the month of March.

Why it is important: The strongest growth in March was attributable to department stores and popular stores with a 4.8% increase.

While the level of sales of all fashion retailers remained stable in March 2023 compared to March 2022, some retailers saw more success than others.

In addition to department stores and popular stores, mass-market chains also saw an increase of 1.6% in sales as well as multi-brand independents with a slight increase of 0.3%.

Specialized chains saw a 0.8% decrease while the fashion departments of hyper-supermarkets saw the sharpest decline with a decrease of 9.4% in sales.

The textile-clothing market as a whole remained in line with the March 2022 level of activity. However, by pre-pandemic standards, sales in March 2023 were significantly down, seeing a decrease of 10.2% in comparison to March 2019.

The balance sheet for the first quarter of 2023 shows an increase in activity of 5.6% compared to Q1 in 2022.

French department stores celebrate and supermarkets lag behind in March