ARTICLE FECOMERCIOSP
Last year’s retail performance gives good clues about 2022
A combination of conjunctural circumstances explains the good performance observed in 2021 in the retail sector in São Paulo. In summary, there was a sales movement anchored in the improvement of its main determinants: rising income mass, higher balance of employees with work contract, substantial increase in credit and reestablishment of consumer confidence. This conjuncture allowed retail sales in São Paulo to grow 10.2% last year.
Throughout the pandemic, the segments that suffered the most were those that showed the best results. The most evident case was that of clothing stores, which had a retraction of 78% in April 2020, and 64% in May of the same year – decisive months for the sector. This represented, at the end of last year, a shrinkage of more than 20% of retail market share. In 2021, the activity registered an expansion of more than 18%, a trend that should continue this year
In the opposite direction, the sales cycle of building materials stores remains very heated, which showed the highest positive sales rates in 2020 (20% expansion), and will show substantial growth again in 2021 (22% increase).
The retail performance in 2022 depends, in special, on the behavior of variables surrounded by uncertainties: the evolution of employment, the general level of interest rates, the international environment and, mainly, the behavior of inflation, the biggest threat to the consumption power of families.
Source: Revista Eletrolar News #148
