The economist estimated the reduction of fashion retail in Russia

The Russian clothing market continues to shrink amid rising costs and changing consumer behavior, while store closures may accelerate. Olga Popkova, an economist and managing partner of the Goldman Energy communications agency, told Izvestia about this on April 3.

"This is a fairly conservative scenario: by the end of 2026, the market may lose up to 40% of outlets," she said.

According to the expert, in 2025, the market has already lost 25 brands, and the total number of clothing stores by the beginning of 2026 decreased by 4.7%, to 114.5 thousand. At the same time, not a single new brand has entered the Russian market since the beginning of the year, which indicates a decrease in investment activity.

Without excessive demand: Russians began to save on clothes and shoes

Why are sales of these products falling and how is the trend affecting retailers?

Popkova stressed that the key reasons for the reduction were rising rental rates, the high cost of logistics and the pressure of the key rate on working capital. An additional factor was the decrease in attendance at shopping malls: in the first half of 2025, it fell by 6% nationwide and by 9% in Moscow.

Against this background, the structure of demand is changing. According to the expert, the average cost of clothing increased by 12% in 2025, and the share of online purchases reached 60%. The bulk of online sales are accounted for by marketplaces, which are showing significant growth and partially offset the decline in offline retail.

The expert noted that medium-sized cities remain the most vulnerable, where the fashion segment depends on a limited number of shopping malls. In large agglomerations, demand is being redistributed to the online and premium segment, while in the regions the closure of stores leads to a noticeable reduction in the available assortment.

According to her, the further development of the market will depend on the balance between online channels and offline formats, but there is already a steady transition to digital sales and a reduction in traditional retail.

On the same day, Natalia Kermedchieva, vice president for new brands at the Union of Shopping Centers and ATER expert, told TASS that up to 15% of fashion stores in the Russian Federation could close in 2026. According to her, the children's segment in retail has generally "failed." The main customer is a non—working mother who is on maternity leave and shopping online.

Prior to that, on March 30, by the end of 2025, O'STIN (Austin LLC) closed 2.6 times more stores than a year earlier. This follows from the explanatory note to the company's report on Russian Accounting Standards (RAS), which was reviewed by Izvestia. The number of closed outlets was 2.3 times higher than the number of open ones: 62 versus 19. At the same time, the number of employees decreased by 15% over the same period to 4,896 people, the document says.

All important news is on the Izvestia channel in the MAX messenger.