Sales, Florence is the queen of shopping but Milan has the highest receipts

During the winter sales, Florence is the queen of shopping with 40.1% of shops visited by tourists, both Italian and foreign. Followed by Milan 36.3%, Rome 34.4% and Naples 32.1%. This is what emerges from the Confcommercio and Format Research focus on the impact of tourist flows on the trend of sales. In Milan, according to the focus, goes the record of the highest average receipt of the foreign tourist: 182 euros for each purchase. Florence comes in second with 166 euros, followed by Rome with 160 euros, which highlights a varied clientele between large buyers and more moderate spending visitors.

Naples closes with an average receipt of 105 euros. The shops in Rome are the most frequented by international customers, 32.1% of the total tourists, Milan 27.5%, Naples 25.0% and Florence 24.0%. This data highlights how Rome depends more on international tourism than Naples. More than half of foreign tourists favor the purchase of Italian high fashion brands (55.6%). Local products follow at 25.1%, and other products at 19.3%. Businesses frequented by tourists during the winter sales expect that the impact of this influx on their store sales will be “very” or “fairly” large, between 44% and 51%.

“One week after the start of the sales, after an initial monitoring of our businesses, we can say that, for 6 out of 10 stores, sales are in line, or even better, than the same period in 2024”, comments Giulio Felloni, president of the Italian Fashion Federation-Confcommercio. “Encouraging signs they come above all from the first day where the historic centers have found excitement and interest even from the younger ones”, adds Felloni.

“In the following days there was a certain stability or a slight decline due to the weather conditions which certainly did not encourage outings.” “A good contribution also comes from the shopping of non-EU foreigners thanks to the measure strongly supported by the Italian Fashion Federation and Confcommercio which reduced the tax free access threshold from 155 to the current 70 euros, also encouraging purchases in various locations”, underlines the president of the federation. “It remains, however, the concern for a sector, that of fashion retail, which is suffering”specifies Felloni. “For this reason we strongly trust in the second weekend of sales which represent an opportunity for savings that the consumer will certainly be able to seize. However, the attention of the institutions and a discussion with the suppliers will be fundamental”.