Countdown to the start of the summer sales: on Saturday 6 July, the world of “fashion” of the Treviso area enters the “sales” period until 31 August. The Venetian survey by Confcommercio and Unioncamere, conducted in June with direct interviews, investigates the topic of consumption and sales, also taking into consideration the province of Treviso and provides a snapshot of trade and consumer sentiment.
The percentages are not surprising: 83% of Treviso consumers (like the Venetians) feel the impact of the increase in inflation, while only 17% declare they do not feel it particularly. 8% of those interviewed say they will spend more, 64% the same, 28% less. All this within an average per capita expenditure of 229 euros for clothing, 186 euros for footwear, 176 euros for accessories.
As for the dual channel online and shops, the forecasts confirm 69% of purchases in physical stores, even in the suburbs, and 31% online. The most “loyal” to physical stores are consumers over 65 (95%), between 55 and 64 years old, for 73%, while the gap between physical users and virtual users decreases with decreasing age: consumers. Millennials and Generation Z (between 18 and 29 years old) purchase almost indifferently (52%-48%) both online and in physical stores. The quality-price ratio is and remains an essential element of the purchasing process. Looking at non-essential consumption and purchasing strategies: for Treviso people the clothing-accessories item is the second expenditure item with 66.1, while in first place (73.1) is the catering and events item.
Clothing and footwear remain essential in the purchasing strategies of both Venetians and Trevisos, who are notoriously attentive to elegance perhaps practiced through relaxed or “deconstructed” garments that return to the center of lifestyle. Sales, according to regional legislation, are end-of-season sales involving fashionable or seasonal products which are subject to depreciation if they remain unsold and the shopkeeper is obliged to indicate the normal selling price , the discount and the final price.
In Treviso and its province, as in the rest of the Veneto, it cannot be denied that the sales are preceded by “pre-sales”, a practice prohibited by law in the 30 days before the official start, which are sent via message to regular customers a few weeks or official start day. The issue of promotional sales in the previous 30 days is under discussion and attention at the Veneto level and in Federmoda.
According to the president of Federmoda Treviso Maria Beatrice Paludetti «we cannot fail to underline the start preceded by a meteorological condition unfavorable to sales: the bad weather that accompanied the months of May and June has in fact severely depressed sales in the high season. This creates a paradoxical effect: the balances are temporally advanced compared to the real trend of the season, which started badly and late; and therefore further erode the operating margin of the fashion system, forcing it to resort to increasingly rare and costly bank credit. Traditional clothing and footwear stores played a highly responsible role in commercial distribution in 2023, renouncing to adjust their prices to inflation (in fact they recorded an increase limited to 3% against the general 5.7%): but now they pay in conditions of extreme fatigue, therefore, the hope is that the sales become a period of “support” for trade”.
The expectations for these summer sales are therefore, if not pessimistic, at least “defensive”, despite the extraordinary efforts of traders to offer collections capable of intercepting the new needs and new orientations of Treviso consumers, who are increasingly oriented towards high quality but reasonable price, especially of Italian and sustainable production, with a style capable of lasting over time. Ferdemoda operators are confident that the trends that have recently emerged will consolidate, which signal a newfound trust in traditional and local shops, and consequently a certain disdain towards purchases made online or in outlets and large shopping centres. The perception is that of being at the center of a revolution that presents us with new lifestyles, all to be interpreted, different from the excessive ones of “hedonistic globalization”, perhaps closer to a “sustainable sobriety”.
