In a year marked by a global pandemic, words like lockdowns, quarantines, waves of COVID-19, closed retail and restrictions became way too familiar to all of us. Retail was one of the industries with major impacts. Today we look at the numbers for European countries   

As a new wave of COVID-19 struck the UK and a new confinement hit the country after the New Year, retail sales of footwear slowed down again. One interesting fact comes from the indicator of consumer confidence, which is now increasing for two succeeding months. If vaccination in the UK succeeds, footwear sales decline might not persist. The question is what the impact will be for brick and mortar, as this virus seems to have been fatal for many high street players   

After a period of some return to normality, as reported in our previous Retail Flash for France, footwear retail in France plunged in November, to recover over the Christmas period. The up and down continued when we entered 2021. And the concern is raised: if 2020 was not good, and if other waves of the pandemic emerge, how will the footwear retail resist in 2021?