September is a good month for back-to-school retail as their sales experience a sequential and year-over-year growth of 13%, in Spain. This is reflected in the latest data and predictions from Mastercard’s SpendingPulse, calculating retail sales in physical and online stores made with all types of payments in several European markets, at a time of increasing prices and demand. of consumers.
Among the markets analysed, Spain heads the list as the one that will experience the most sequential and year-on-year growth compared to last year, followed by the Czech Republic (10%) and the United Kingdom (9%).
Store purchases recover
In Spain, face-to-face purchases in stores are those that show the greatest growth (sequential and year-on-year) among the markets analyzed (14%). Although slower purchases in online stores are also experiencing a boom in our country (2%), being the only market with a positive forecast in this type of purchases compared to the other markets.
Trends of ‘back to school’ by sectors
Regarding the type of purchases that will be made this back-to-school season, the data analyzed from Mastercard’s SpendingPulse indicates the following trends:
- Wardrobe Makeover: clothing and jewelery sales will experience strong growth in many of the analyzed markets compared to 2021. The largest year-on-year increase in these sectors will occur in France, with 23% in clothing sales and 32% in jewelery sales, followed by Spain, with an increase of 21% and 19% respectively. Poland (23%) and Germany (17%) will also see significant growth in clothing sales. Other markets, such as the United Kingdom or Italy, will see little growth in sales in both categories.
- Experience purchases are back: sectors related to tourism, such as restaurants, grow as families take advantage of the last weeks of summer. It is estimated that Spain will register a year-on-year growth of 13% in restoration, while France and the United Kingdom will register 4% in this same category.
- Household expenses: Sectors such as electronics and furniture should see sequential and year-on-year growth of 11% and 38% respectively in our country, compared to other markets such as the United Kingdom or the Netherlands, which in previous years spent more on these categories .
«Spain has benefited enormously from the return of tourism and we have seen that spending has recovered steadily”, notes Natalia Lechmanova, a senior economist at the Mastercard Institute of Economics. “Although spending on hospitality and staples has been higher, we have also seen a significant increase in durable goods such as furniture as many hotels and restaurants need to invest in renovations. We expect this trend to continue for the hospitality sector to recover to pre-pandemic levels.”
