The sales are far from being the only appointment to benefit from lower prices, since certain brands have started their private sales, promotions reserved for identified customers, from the day after Christmas.

Andréa, a 27-year-old industrial development engineer, explains to AFP that she "already did a lot of business during Black Friday", a promotional period at the end of November.

She generally believes that she now does “better business during private sales” than during sales.

Nevertheless, the Bordelaise, who prefers not to reveal her surname, will not miss the sales, and has even planned to make the trip to Paris, its boulevard Haussmann and its department stores.

"I like to do the sales in stores with people who also like shopping, whether it's girlfriends or my sister who lives near Paris".

It is all the ambivalence of this framed period of sales, which loses importance each year in the face of competition from private promotions, but remains a high point of consumption.

Cécile Nury, director in charge in particular of customer relations at Relais Colis, observes that the sales effect "has been somewhat blunted in recent years on the volumes of parcels" managed by the delivery company and which remain "50% higher on a normal day".

By way of comparison, volumes during the key holiday season, including Black Friday, are more like twice as high as on a normal day.

"Fragile social climate"

And for physical commerce?

"The context of the sales depends on what we did during the season", answers Yohann Petiot, general manager of the Alliance du Commerce, which brings together department stores and clothing and footwear brands.

October and November were "not very good" and "the Black Friday period was not exceptional either".

“On the other hand, the month of December was good”, he continues, with sales “11% higher compared to 2021 in stores and 4% online”, according to a panel of around forty representative brands. of the clothing market carried out by the Alliance du Commerce with Retail Int.

“We hope to maintain this momentum for January, the start of the month seems good for the moment”, according to him.

The sales are far from being the only event to benefit from lower prices, since some brands have started their private sales, promotions reserved for identified customers, from Boxing Day © Fred TANNEAU / AFP/Archives

After years disrupted by the Covid-19, traders have, according to him, "reasonable stocks", and Yohann Petiot advises customers to "come as soon as the sales start" to "do good business".

But with inflation hitting businesses, retailers might be tempted to make smaller markdowns to preserve their margins as much as possible.

Reason for concern according to Mr. Petiot, in addition to the "fragile social climate": "in January a certain number of bills fall which have increased further, the question arises as to whether the French will have the purchasing power to indulge themselves "on the occasion of the sales in a context of still significant inflation.

© 2023 AFP