IADS Press Release : Worldwide department stores’ performances between 2023 and 2024: the peak is past. Growth remains.

The annual IADS Global Department Store Monitor was launched in 2021 by the International Association of Department Stores after realising that comparable department store data was either unavailable, poorly understood or unexploited by analysts. This was due to the nature of an ever-evolving industry, making it difficult for outsiders to understand, given the pace of privatisation, mergers, change in ownership, or simply not categorising numbers by business unit. Since then, the report has been rebuilt to enable dynamic comparison among department stores over the years. 

The Monitor was designed to compare results pre- and post- the COVID pandemic, given the magnitude of changes this episode had on department stores. It isolates the impact of sales growth from the effect of exchange rate changes to track and compare sales and profits from companies worldwide while accounting for currency fluctuations. Also, given that accounting standards across countries are not uniform, financial data are refined and harmonised to provide a comparable base. 

The 2025 edition of the IADS Global Department Store Monitor reviews 59 department stores with publicly available information to create a benchmark for industry stakeholders regarding the 2023-2024 period.

In 2024, the global economy, including retail, faced significant market uncertainty, slow economic growth, and unfavourable interest rate environments across regions. The post-COVID-19 peak of 2021 and 2022 has passed, and growth has now stabilised across the retail sector, with department stores largely following this trend, albeit with regional divergences. Some broad observations from the 2023-2024 Global Department Store Monitor indicate that: 

• The average global year-on-year sales growth in Fiscal Year 2023-2024, after two years of significantly positive sales growth in 2021 and 2022, shows a slightly negative sales trend of around –1.6%. 
• The share of department store sales in their parent companies’ total retail sales is stabilising and has almost returned to pre-COVID levels. 
• This is also due to the reduction of their parent companies' total global retail sales after hitting a peak in 2021 and 2022, due to considerations such as reduced purchasing power, the slowdown in the luxury sector, environmental responsibility, and particular regional factors.

In the Americas, for department stores owned by groups – the share of department store sales has stabilised and contribute more to their owners’ retail sales than pre-COVID. This is due to increased department store sales and lower total retail sales per company. However, the average total retail sales trend of these group-owned department stores is negativeⁱ. On the other hand, stand-alone department stores are almost stable and slightly positive in year on-year sales growth.

In the Asia-Pacific region, the share of department stores in their owners’ total retail sales has stabilised but has not reached pre-COVID levels in terms of contribution to their owners’ total retail sales. Department store sales have reduced due to a regional retail slowdown, especially in Japan, South Korea, and Hong Kong. The average sales trend for department stores was negative after two consistent years of sales growth in 2021 and 2022. In India and the Philippines, on the other hand, department stores saw a positive sales trend.

Similarly, in Europe, for department stores owned by groups, the share of department store sales in their owners’ total retail sales is higher than their pre-COVID contribution due to the reduction in owners’ total retail sales. For both group owned and standalone department stores, sales performance saw an average trend of less than 1%. 

The election of President Donald Trump in the US and impending tariffs are sure to restructure global retail supply chains. Though inflation across other economies has decreased, the US market fears stagflation despite Trump’s prodomestic growth agenda. The ripples of US-American economic actions will be felt worldwide, with the EU, China and Canada, among other countries, discussing retaliatory tariffs. The potential US TikTok ban pending its sale to a US owner adds to the uncertainty, given that it is an essential social media channel that drives trends and influences consumer behaviour in the fashion industry. 

Emerging Asian markets like Vietnam and India will significantly impact the global retail landscape. Galeries Lafayette’s first Indian department store, in partnership with Aditya Birla Group, will open in Mumbai this year and a second one in Delhi in 2026. In the EU, revised sustainability directives mandate comprehensive environmental reporting and due diligence from retailers by 2028. The global economic forecast for 2025 is uncertain and will digress sharply from 2024 results. 

The next edition of the Global Department Store Monitor will examine Fiscal Year 2024-2025 results. While the global retail landscape is constantly changing, the factors discussed above will definitely impact department stores, adding to their current transformation, which includes prioritising omnichannel presence, experiential retail, and adapting to changing consumer preferences.The full list of companies covered in the Global Department Store Monitor is available on the following page. The data sheet can be downloaded by clicking here.

ⁱ : Due to the limited availability of public financial data, this section analyses only three Latin American department stores owned by groups, so 
inferences may not be fully extrapolatable at the continental level. 
 

Read the full press release below:

Read the full press release, in French, below:

Access the IADS Global Departments Store Monitor datasheet here.