American retailers have been forced to offer sales and markdowns to get consumers to shop. Now European retailers are doing the same.
So why is this a big deal? Because France strictly regulates when stores can hold sales.
Stores in countries such as France and the U.K. are adopting the aggressive price-cutting tactics of their U.S. counterparts in the hope of stimulating stingy consumers. French stores, which are reeling from an 18.3 percent drop in women's apparel business in February, are capitalizing on new regulations that allow for soldes flottantes — or floating sales — for two weeks each year in addition to the two legally allowed sale periods during January and June.
It's the first time in umpteen years French retailers can hold additional sales on the dates of their choice. The only stipulation is they be at least a month after the official January and June sale periods, which the law cut to five weeks from six previously.
In the U.K., meanwhile, dismal February same-store sales results, which fell 1.8 percent, aren't expected to see significant improvement when the March figures are released Thursday. British stores such as Marks & Spencer and Selfridges, which, like their counterparts in continental Europe used to restrict themselves to biannual sales, are offering heavy markdowns year-round on everything from furniture to women's and men's fashions. U.K. retailers have recently benefited from the weakness of the pound against the euro, with Harvey Nichols launching an advertising campaign aimed at attracting more tourists.
In France, meanwhile, low-cost players like Kiabi and Cache-Cache, fashion chains including Gap and Etam plus La Redoute and e-boutiques such as Kookai have offered discounts of up to 80 percent under the new sales regulations.
No doubt European consumers are quite happy with the concept of year round sales. It's going to be hard to put the genie back into the bottle on this one.
