On the agenda: financial statements of the trading house, the election of a new board of directors and the issue of annual payments. It is recommended not to produce them this year. The financial crisis has led to losses for luxury clothing retailers. Many shops lure customers with a discount. Sale is in its second month, and discounts on branded items reach 30 percent. However, there were no more buyers.
The luxury market is stagnating. Retailers that have been in a form of intense growth for the past seven years are now practically idle. There are still regular customers, but the middle class of boutiques bypasses them. To attract buyers, market participants went to early sales. Discount from 50-30%. There are no such discounts in Europe yet, Anna Lebsak-Kleimans, CEO of Fashion Consulting Group, told Business FM: “All goods are purchased in euros, and people see the final price in rubles. Accordingly, what people saw this season looks like in rubles, as prices increased despite the crisis. Accordingly, a decrease, in fact, by 20-30% brings prices to the usual prices in rubles last year.because lower prices always mean repositioning for companies and moving to a cheaper segment."
No major brand will jump on prices. Retailers are forced to buy goods in euros and enter the Russian market at standard former prices. The situation is not yet critical. Sellers still have the opportunity to discount and not work at a loss. However, the profitability of retailers is falling - there are fewer purchases, says Julia Delua, owner of the Mehovgo boutique: “The people are quiet, the people are somehow not buying much, and this applies to both Russia and Europe. Stores are closing one by one in Moscow.”
StellMcCartney, Alexander McQueen, Diesel and Kukai have closed. However, new players came, among them the Swedish company H&M. Designers have not stopped sewing and organizing fashion shows. For the Paris Fashion Week, Dior, for example, spent $ 2.5 million. Louis Vuitton released the famous plaid bag, parodying the "shuttle" bags, Lanvin sewed dresses from parachute silk. And there will always be a demand for such goods, "Maria Smorchkova, general director of the Association of Fashion Industry Enterprises, said in an interview with Business FM:" The collection is purchased by pre-order, six months in advance and is calculated based on the exchange rate on the day of purchase and on the day of sale. Conditionally, we bought at 24, but put up for sale already at 28. This is already recorded in the price tags and, naturally, no one dared to raise prices in winter,when the dollar crawled up. But the next collection, which is now "spring-summer" - it was purchased in the fall. The forecast of the expectation of an increase in the further rate of the euro and the dollar forced buyers to revise prices and recalculate them at the projected new rate."
However, even when offering a good discount, it's difficult to convince customers that they want the product, retailers say. The quotation has always driven demand. In a crisis, this formula does not work.