Brands come and go – Kommersant FM

There are more and more foreign fashion brands in Russia, and the cost of domestic products is rising. This year, 19 new foreign brands appeared in the country in the consumer goods segment, according to analysts from the NF Group company. This is a record since pre-pandemic 2019, when 26 retailers entered the Russian market. Among the opened stores, the share of Turkish ones is almost 60%, Belarusian – about 15% and Estonian – 8%. In 2024, more than 20 foreign brands plan to enter the Russian market. The majority, according to NF Group, are represented in the clothing and footwear segment. With details – Alexander Mezentsev.

Of the foreign retailers that are just preparing to launch, 35% are Iranian. And not all fashion experts are happy about this. The fact is that if Turkish brands simply do not always follow trends on time, then Russian consumers are unlikely to be interested in Iranian brands at all.

Retailers from China, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Belarus and the United Arab Emirates will also appear in shopping centers. At the same time, it is too early to talk about the active development of foreign brands next year, says Nadezhda Tsvetkova, head of the retail space leasing department at CORE.XP:

“We have recorded 18 brands. Most of the openings occurred in the first half of the year – about 16. The first brand – Kelebek – Turkish household goods, it opened in September. Recently, another brand of Italian clothing has appeared.

A lot of brands are in negotiations, but it’s difficult to say that they will definitely open in 2024. There are certain procedures associated with organizing all activities in Russia that companies must go through. Therefore, it is too early to say anything.”

Despite numerous attempts by foreign companies to take a place in the Russian market, their share is increasing slightly, notes the head of the Infoline-Analytics company, Mikhail Burmistrov:

“Russian players were very active in occupying space that was vacated by international companies – that’s one thing. Second: retail is rapidly moving online, and this naturally leads to the fact that it is quite difficult for international players to open new single objects. Why? Ozon, to a lesser extent Wildberries, Yandex Market are starting to work more actively with foreign sellers. And their products become available on Russian marketplaces.”

Clothing prices in November increased by an average of 15% year-on-year. Russian brands are trying to develop the mass market and the middle segment, but some decide to move to a higher level and increase the cost of products.

For example, the company 12Storeez announced that it was preparing to enter premium before 2022. However, buyers on social networks began to increasingly express dissatisfaction with the quality of clothing. Users make similar complaints about the mass market brand Lime. But this company is unlikely to have decided to move into a higher segment, notes fashion expert Anya Baturina:

At Zara, before she left, some time ago, limited collections with prices well above average began to appear. Then everyone began to wonder why Zara sets prices that are practically prohibitive for the mass market.

However, the wave of indignation passed quickly enough, and Zara continued to be loved. It seems to me that in the case of Lime it is about the same. That is, they will play with individual super-expensive microcapsules, but will leave the prices for everything else the same. I don’t think they want to step beyond the middle segment and further aim for luxury.”

Some foreign brands that came after the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine are already leaving Russia. Thus, the distributor Jamilco a year later closed the only Turkish stores in the country, Ipekyol and Twist. This is due to weak marketing activity, high competition with Russian fashion retailers and the growing popularity of online shopping, including from abroad.

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Yana Zagorovskaya