Overview
- The Alliance du commerce, representing about 2,000 clothing, footwear and department store locations, reports a year-on-year 1.8% decline in in-store takings.
- Snow severely depressed the opening, with roughly a 20% drop over the first three days and a 5.7% fall across week one in physical shops.
- Traffic and sales strengthened in the final weeks, but the recovery fell short of offsetting the early losses.
- Online sales in the period edged up 0.8%, contrasting with the in-store decline.
- Sector leaders cite earlier promotional events, competition from ultra fast-fashion platforms and tighter stock management as headwinds, while debate over the sales calendar continues with the Alliance favoring current dates.