Europe’s luxury stores making few sales with no tourists visiting and local shoppers thin on the ground
- Countries in Europe are coming out of lockdown, and luxury shops are reopening in the continent’s fashion capitals
- With no big-spending tourists and few local shoppers coming through their doors, expect the mother of all end-of-season sales to move on unsold inventory
As European luxury shopping capitals, from Paris to Milan, slowly emerge from coronavirus lockdown, stores are reopening to a trickle of customers, and virtually no tourists.
The absence of big-spending travellers, particularly from China, the Middle East and the United States, is a major drag on sales as, depending on the brand, they provide between 35 per cent and 55 per cent of revenues in Europe.
With a global recession looming, and fears of a second wave of infections, there seems little prospect of a big influx of tourists soon – or of local buyers making up the shortfall.
“It’s quiet. I think it will be like this for weeks to come – hopefully not months,” said a shop assistant at the Gucci stand in the upscale Rinascente department store.
