russia’s Fashion Market Continues to Collapse: Brands Are Leaving and Offline Sales Are Plummeting

In the rf, the decline in clothing and footwear retail is accelerating amid recessionary trends, tax pressure, and sanctions. In the second quarter, this category accounted for 45 % of all store closures, and in the third quarter, it was already 54 %. moscow became the center of the biggest losses: in July-September, 50 % of clothing, footwear, and accessory store closures occurred there, which is by 12 % more than in the previous quarter. For comparison, in the food sector, almost 11 % of outlets disappeared in the third quarter.

In recent months, dozens of fashion brands have left the market, including InCity, Deseo, Just Clothes, Bat Norton, I am Studio, Mellow, Inspire Girls, Orby, and Yollo. Twelve international companies have also left since the beginning of the year. Some russian retailers are trying to stay afloat through online sales, but are forced to experiment with formats and optimize costs.

Small and medium-sized businesses are especially vulnerable: an unstable sales model, dependence on marketplaces, limited access to credit, and rising costs are forcing companies to either downsize their networks or move entirely online.

An additional blow was the crisis of the largest marketplace, Ozon – internal instability and logistical disruptions are pushing prices up, negating the platform’s main advantage. The situation is being exacerbated by labor shortages due to problems with migrant workers and fiscal pressure on the self-employed, creating a new wave of turbulence in russian retail.