The average price per pair of shoe purchases by Italian families decreased by -3.5% in the first quarter of 2021, due to the greater weight, on the total, of leisure footwear and slippers, with a lower average value compared to those for formal occasions. It is one of the changes that the pandemic (and its consequences, such as the increase in smart working) have induced in consumption: the latest reports Assocalzaturifici report, which also indicates how exports are the key to restarting.
He postpones
The first, albeit timid, sign of rebirth for one of the most affected sectors is that which – in the first quarter of 2021 – sees an increase in exports for the footwear industry (+ 0.3% in quantity and + 3% in value total Italy): however, pre-Covid levels remain far off. According to the latest data processed by the Confindustria Moda Study Center for Assocalzaturifici, after the unprecedented declines of 2020, with a loss of about a quarter of turnover and national production, the gradual improvement in the epidemiological situation and the consequent easing not only in Italy of the restrictive measures favored a return to better levels of activity, albeit still largely subdued. “The recovery is still a long way off, although we see the light at the end of the tunnel – explains Siro Badon, president of Assocalzaturifici – If on the foreign front the rebound in March was enough to bring the results of the quarter back to at least the values of the first part of 2020, not so on the domestic market, where the closure of shops in shopping centers over the weekend, a measure removed only last May, has induced a further decline in household purchases. Recovery times will not be short. In particular, national production in the first quarter shows a decline of -6.4% on January-March 2020 and approximately -30% on the same pre-pandemic 2019 period. On the domestic market, purchases show a drop of -3.5% in quantity and -6.9% in terms of spending, with a gap of more than -20% over two years ago ». Only sports shoes and sneakers show a recovery in consumption (+ 7.8% in volume), albeit partial.
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Outlets abroad
On the export front, the national data shows the increase in flows to Switzerland (+ 13% in quantity) and France (+ 8%), both linked to outsourcing for international luxury brands, and outside Europe the growth of China (+ 44.4% in volume and + 74.8% in value over the first 3 months of 2020), which affected in particular the top of the range with an average price increased by 21%. A performance that is explained by the country’s economic expansion, consumer revenge spending after health emergency restrictions, and the direct entry of goods that previously passed through Hong Kong. The positive data is offset by the slow pace for important traditional outlet markets, such as Germany (-0.8% in quantity), the United States (which, after losing 30% in 2020, recorded a modest +3 in the first quarter. , 5% in volume, with a -8.6% in value) and Spain (-5.9% in quantity), to which is added the collapse in sales in the United Kingdom (down by more than 40% on January-March last year) “. The trade balance of the first 3 months is in surplus for 1.13 billion (+ 11.2%), although still -4.3% lower than two years ago.
The Veneto case
The region is home to highly specialized districts, from the sports footwear of Montebelluna to the luxury hub of the Riviera del Brenta. “The data processed by the Confindustria Moda Study Center for Assocalzaturifici – says Gilberto Ballin, president of Acrib – show a recovery in terms of exports from Veneto in the first quarter of 2021, with a + 6.2% in value over the same period of the year previous one. Our region is in the lead nationally for export turnover, with a share equal to 27.6% of the total. France (+ 4.1%), Switzerland (+ 75.9%), Germany (+ 0.2%), Spain (-10.6%) and USA (+ 37.8%) the main destinations of the footwear produced “. Despite these timid signs of recovery, “pre-pandemic levels remain far off. Compared to the first quarter of 2019, exports in Veneto recorded a decline of -4.8%, which reached -24.4% in the Riviera del Brenta between the provinces of Venice and Padua. As for the prospects, a climate of great uncertainty persists: on the one hand, there are fears of a new decline in orders, on the other a further limitation of the mobility of people, both commercial operators and consumers ”.