Catalan commerce expects to sell 10% more in sales than before the covid

Consumption picks up

Estimates for the whole of Spain are less optimistic

Edward Magallon

Barcelona

The trade faces the sales campaign that starts today in the hope of recovering part of what was lost with the pandemic. While the Catalan associations are confident of selling more than in the 2020 sales, just a few weeks before confinement, the state-owned associations expect to remain below the pre-pandemic level. In favor of the sales – which years ago ceased to be a campaign regulated by law – the expected drop in temperatures plays, which encourages sales of outerwear, and which begin on Friday, which augurs good sales at the end of week.

And it is that although the traditional campaign lasted until the end of February, the reality is that the commercial pull of the sales actually lasts only a week or two at most. "Most of the sales, 70%, are made in the first three or four days of sales," reflects Eduardo Zamacola, president of the Acotex textile company employers' association. In his opinion, depending on how the omicron variant evolves, sales could grow up to 20%, but they would still be below those of 2020. Zamacola recalls that last year the sales were bad due to the covid and the effects of the storm Filomena, who literally paralyzed half the country.

Trends

Online commerce has changed the way of buying and the queues of the first day have disappeared

In Catalonia, although the effect of bad weather was less in 2021, the restrictions did have an impact, which left non-essential businesses closed. Comertia, the trade association that groups 4,000 companies, estimates that the increase in sales will be almost 10%, but compared to 2019. "The sales make sense and this year more, since many companies, in anticipation of the problems in the supply chain, they now have a lot of stock to dispose of”, says David Sánchez, president of Comertia.

Àlex Goñi, president of PIMEComerç, points out that small businesses in Catalonia are ardent followers of sales and not of other promotions such as Black Friday. “It is a contradiction to make discounts and offers before the best sale of the year, which is Christmas. When it has to be done, it is later in the sales, to dispose of the surplus”, says Goñi.

Season

Many distribution chains have already started discounts during Christmas

In recent years, among the large distribution chains, practically only El Corte Inglés and the Inditex group maintain powerful sales, with brands such as Zara. Other chains have already started discounts even before the end of the Christmas campaign.

Sources from El Corte Inglés affirm that the drop in temperatures is good for boosting sales and that this year they plan to start with very aggressive discounts from day one. Gone are those years in which on January 7 early in the morning customers crowded in search of a bargain. The irruption of the internet and online commerce have disrupted the forms of sale.

90% of new contracts in December were temporary

The sales will take place in a scenario of high incidence of covid, which causes many sick leave. The sector trusts to be able to manage it with the increase in templates. Goñi points out that only the employers' associates will have hired some 18,000 people. The companies in the sector increased their workforces with Black Friday in November, which they kept for the Christmas campaign and which normally continue until the end of January.

In December, almost one in three Comertia companies carried out new hires, while 57% kept the equipment and 11% reduced the number of employees. Regarding the impact of the covid, 9% of the companies have found more than 20% of the workforce sick, and 65% have had less than 20% of the total workforce sick by the omicron.

Shopping

Most of the business is concentrated in the first four days, says the sector

Zamacola points out that due to his experience, companies still cover personnel needs by disaffecting workers who remain in ERTE (temporary employment regulation files) and through temporary employment agencies (ETT).

In relation to the impact of inflation, the sector agrees that now is not the time to increase prices since it is still coming out of the crisis, but warns that the cost of energy has a great impact. "We are sacrificing margin because we don't want to slow down consumption."

Free rebates but with controls

Different court rulings have left total freedom when it comes to raising the rebates. They are no longer defined by law as in previous years. However, sources from Comerç, which depends on Roger Torrent's Conselleria d'Empresa, explained that the controls that were carried out in the past to ensure that there is no fraud in the sales are still maintained, such as putting on sale products manufactured expressly for those promotions or that are not labeled correctly. In recent years, the debate on the usefulness or not of opening on holidays has been reduced. Small merchants say that if it is open more days, the sale is distributed over several days, but they do not increase.

Analysis of consumerism