Ahead of this year’s sales, which start on 3 January, nine out of ten shop owners in Belgium report a drop in customers, RTBF reports. Against the backdrop of the energy crisis and reduced purchasing power, many Belgians have stated their intention to tighten their belts this year, especially in the country’s French-speaking regions.
While this is generally bad news for shop owners, it paints a slightly brighter forecast for this year’s sales, which will be more attractive to customers unwilling to spend in the run up to Christmas.
“With skyrocketing gas and electricity bills, I have no choice but to buy during the sales. It’s hard for me to put money aside. We buy bigger ones in anticipation of winter,” one shopper told RTBF.
More widely, merchants have complained about a general drop in consumption during the holiday period. The expert believes that the unseasonably mild temperatures are also partially to blame, disincentivizing customers from purchasing winter products.
“Consumption has fallen since nine out of ten merchants note that there are fewer customers, who also buy less,” said Christophe Wabersie, secretary general for the Neutral Union for Freelancers (SNI) in Brussels and Wallonia.
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Disappointing consumption will likely mean a surge in transactions during this year’s sales. Fewer customers means more surplus inventory and more advantageous prices.
“60% of self-employed respondents think that they still have 40% of their stock, which is relatively high,” Wambersie said. “80% of independent merchants will start with a 30% discount. The remaining 20%, which is already a significant share, will start directly with discounts of 50%. We usually see these discounts during the middle of the sales.”
The SNI complains that independent merchants still need to compete with online retailers, which puts further pressure on stores to offer advantageous discounts to their customers.
Retailers expect the January 2023 sales to be roughly comparable to the sales at the start of this year.
