Foresees it Anush Gasparyan, commercial director of the Russian consultancy Fashion Consulting Group. The average price of shoes is set to rise by 30 percent year-on-year, pushing consumers to focus on cheaper models. [Low-cost footwear to increase market share in Russia this year – Shoe Intelligence]
The surge in inflation will accelerate a multi-year trend that has seen Russians downscaling footwear purchases due to an erosion of their purchasing power. The low-price segment has been steadily expanding its share of the Russian footwear market since 2014, when it accounted for 50 percent of sales. In 2022, the segment is projected to reach 72 percent. The share of the mid-tier segment is poised to drop from 40 percent in 2014 to its lowest level ever of 20 percent in 2022.
Meanwhile, sales of high-end shoes remain resilient. In 2022, the segment is projected to account for 8 percent of sales in the Russian footwear market, compared to 10 percent in 2014, Gasparyan estimated.
- The Russian footwear market had total revenues of $8.8bn in 2020, representing a compound annual rate of change (CARC) of -3.5% between 2016 and 2020.
- The women's footwear segment was the market's most valuable in 2020, with total revenues of $4.0bn, equivalent to 45.6% of the market's overall value.
- Russia purchases an average 2.39 pairs of shoes per person per year, significantly behind Europe’s 5-6 pairs and the US’s 7-8 pairs in terms of consumption.
