PARIS — Christmas shopping kicked into high gear across Europe over the weekend as retailers reported a burst of strong sales after a ho-hum start to the holiday selling season.
Retailers said the gift-giving season had started later this year with mediocre traffic in stores during the first two weeks of this month.
“It’s a bit difficult to understand Christmas for the moment,” said Severine Merle, the image and commercial director of Paris’ Bon Marché. “It’s started somewhat slow, but now sales are gaining momentum fast.”
Most stores reported improved clothing sales as shoppers moved away from electronic gadgets in favor of sweaters, high-end ready-to-wear and designer accessories.
Jewelry also has been a blockbuster surprise, retailers added.
“Our luxury items have been brisk all year, and December has confirmed that trend,” said Didier Lalance, managing director of Paris’ Printemps. “Everything that is superexclusive and unique is selling. We just sold our last 3,000 euro [or about $3,928 at current exchange] sable quilt, for example. Dior jewelry by Victoire de Castellane is a hit. We’ve been selling jewelry — expensive pieces — exceptionally well.”
Lalance said sales have picked up considerably at Printemps in the last week, with designer fragrances and accessories gaining traction.
“We are really in the home stretch right now,” he said. “We can say for sure now that clothing has been doing much better this year than last year.”
Shopping in the U.K. got off to a slow start, too. Retail analysts said that, although traffic is still down from last year, momentum has been building.
Retail monitor FootFall said that last weekend shopper numbers rose 4.4 percent from the previous week. Nonetheless, they were still down by 11.4 percent compared with last year.
“Consumers very much have that last weekend [before Christmas] in mind. Their thoughts are going to be directed to shopping this week,” said a FootFall spokeswoman.
Santa’s spirit is finally waking up in Italy, too.
“Sales are going especially well now,” said a spokeswoman for La Rinascente department store.
She said momentum has picked up since late last month, and that a long holiday weekend last week helped beef up traffic and sales.
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“There are more people and they are sending more,” the spokeswoman said, adding that last Saturday and Sunday the store at the Duomo periodically regulated traffic at the door because of so many shoppers.
After a modest first few weeks, German retailers also finally are feeling some breathing room. Last weekend generated the strongest retail figures of the season so far, said the national association of retailers.
Jewelry is a strong gift category so far in Germany, with sweaters, leather goods and women’s boots picking up the slack.
Furniture and expensive electrical goods, such as flat-screen TVs, DVD players and digital cameras, have been selling well because of a tax increase set to begin in the new year.
Retailers have reported increased turnover in Berlin and in other areas of Germany where shops are now allowed to stay open later, as well as on Sundays, in the run-up to Christmas.
The head of the national association of retailers described the longer opening hours as a gift from the government, adding that stores in Berlin were full on Sunday.
At the 142-door Galeria Kaufhof department store chain, business strengthened in recent weekends, with traffic noticeably picking up in the afternoon, a spokeswoman said.
At Departmentstore Quartier 206 in Berlin, jewelry, accessories, cosmetics and fragrances were among the top performers.
“[The trend] is clearly in the direction of the upper luxury segment,” a spokeswoman said. “High-quality jewelry [such as Gem Palace], furs [for example, Birger Christensen] or bags and luggage in crocodile are very much in demand.”
She noted that classic evening clothes moved well shortly before the holidays, with evening dresses from Jil Sander and Marchesa and evening shoes by Jimmy Choo among the winners.
— With contributions from Damien McGuinness and Melissa Drier, Berlin; Amanda Kaiser, Milan, and Nina Jones, London