MKOR participated for the second consecutive year in Fashion ROute, an event dedicated to fashion retail and organized by Wall-Street.ro. While in the previous edition Corina Cimpoca, MKOR founder, spoke about the fashion sector market in Romania, at the 2018 edition the analysis was more in-depth, offering new insights into production, imports, and exports, as well as the online and offline fashion market.
In this article, we invite you to go through an overview of Corina’s presentation, and if you would like the full presentation, do not hesitate to write to us.
91% of Romanian consumption is represented by imports
We export almost everything we produce, namely 94%, while fashion imports cover 91% of Romanian consumption. We estimate that fashion exports will reach 3.63 billion euros this year, while imports will rise to a level of 2.17 billion euros, an increase of 14% compared to last year.
About 77% of the total fashion consumption of Romanians is represented by clothes; at the retailer level, the market is dominated by H&M, Zara and Decathlon, each of the three with turnovers exceeding 600 million euros annually.
We have nearly 19,000 retailers in the fashion industry in Romania, making it a very crowded market from this point of view. Of these, almost a quarter are players with foreign capital who generate 64% of the market turnover.
Fashion Retail: Online vs. Offline
In a world where digital is omnipresent, consumers have access to unlimited information and alternative options at any time.
Starting from this, retailers are trying to offer shoppers unique experiences, whether online, in-store, or a combination of the two. With the help of technology, online facilities are making their way directly onto store shelves.
The Digital Fashion Consumer Trends study, conducted by MKOR Consulting at the end of 2017, shows that more than a quarter (27%) of Romanians who usually visit online fashion stores do not buy online.
This is because they prefer to see and test products in a physical store (56% of them), or they fear that the sizes will not fit them (52%).
In addition, more than a third (34%) of those who visit online fashion stores only want to compare prices and find products that they buy offline.
However, in Romania, online is growing by 19% compared to 2017, so the online fashion market counts more and more customers. Online, the strongest retailers are foreign and represent top of mind for consumers. In first place regarding which online store they use, respondents spontaneously mentioned H&M virtual stores.
Romanian retailers are also in the top online brands: eMag, FashionDays and FashionUp.
The presentation’s conclusions show that the consumer market is growing, which is also observed in the evolution of retail. Consumption is supported by imports, at a rate of 91%, while domestic production goes to export almost entirely (94%).
Watch the video recording of the presentation here:
About Fashion ROute
Structured as a one-day conference, Fashion ROute provided an X-ray of the journey taken by clothing, footwear, and accessories from moment zero – the production stage – until they reach the shelf.
The 2018 edition focused on two major trends influencing the Romanian market: the expansion of online commerce and the tendency of major fashion retailers to expand into eCommerce. Also, the omnichannel trend of players in the Romanian market was addressed, including online merchants trying to be as present as possible in the offline environment, through showrooms or other physical concepts and experiences.
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Corina’s outfit was provided by the brand NISSA, whom we thank in this way.
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