Abstract
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- Get insight into trends in market performance
- Pinpoint growth sectors and identify factors driving change
- Identify market and brand leaders and understand the competitive
environment
Executive summary
Market growth halted in 2008
The Swedish clothing and footwear market came to a halt in 2008. After a
strong growth over the 2003-2008 period the annual sales of clothing and
footwear in Sweden declined for the first time in over ten years. The direct
cause of this decline was the global economic crisis the world experienced in
2008, which caused the value of the US dollar to decrease. This strongly
affected the global markets that trade in US dollar, including the
international fashion industry. Eventually the global economic crisis affected
the Swedish economy, which forced industries to make employees redundant.
Consequently the Swedes were concerned for their economy and decreased the
consumption.
High incomes provide means to roll in design
The Swedish clothing and footwear market is highly influenced by the
disposable household incomes, which grew strongly over the 2003-2008 period
resulting in market growth until 2008. The high disposable incomes provided
the Swedes means to explore their strong interest in fashion and design. This
interest has paved the way for new Swedish high-fashion brands, such as
Filippa K, and collaborations between H&M and several well-known international
fashion designers, such as Karl Lagerfeldt. The latter is an important trend
in that the Swedes interest in design is increasingly focusing on well-known
designers. Fashion and design is no longer a luxury for the rich and famous,
it is available to all.
Females the strongest group of fashion consumers in Sweden
Traditionally females are the most important consumers of fashion in Sweden.
This is well illustrated in that subsectors related to females' clothing and
footwear consumption grew the fasted over the 2003-2008 period. The strongest
growing subsector in the 2003-2008 period were women' s outerwear, underwear
and nightwear, socks, stockings and tights, as well as, women' s footwear. It
is not only the total consumption of women' s wear that grows but also the
consumption per woman, which has almost doubled over the last ten years. Men' s
fashion consumption is comparably modest at about half the size of females'
both in overall value and per individual.
Domestic brands dominate Swedish clothing and footwear market
The Swedish clothing and footwear market is highly fragmented with many small
international players. However, domestic or Scandinavian players dominate the
top positions. Sweden has many strong clothing brands such as H&M, Lindex and
KappAhl, where H&M is the principal player on the Swedish clothing market with
more than twice the market shares to the second player Lindex. The strongest
international clothing brand on the Swedish market is the Spanish Zara, which
ranked fourth in 2008. In lack of a principal player the Swedish footwear
market is even more fragmented than the clothing market; the only Swedish
footwear brands of note are DinSko,Vagabond and Björn Borg. The leading
footwear brand in 2008 was the Danish Ecco.
Harsh economic times expected
The global economic crisis in 2008 overshadowed the Swedish clothing and
footwear market. The previously strong growth has come to an end and
Euromonitor forecasts market decline in the 2008-2013 period. The duration of
this decline will depend on when the Swedish economy recovers; the market may
possibly start to grow again toward the end of the forecast period.
Euromonitor forecasts that the negative development will affect the sales of
women' s wear the most because this consumption is comparably high per
individual. As women are expected to decrease their consumption per individual
the total sales of women' s wear is expected to decrease.
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