After strong winter sales, British fashion retailer Primark will replace Next this year to become Britain's second-largest apparel retailer. Cheap products, aviator jackets, kidswear and a new line of cosmetics all play a big role in helping Primark overtake rivals, though Primark does not sell the product online.
The clothing chain retailer said that since the Brexit vote, prices of many of its rivals have risen due to falling sterling, but it has benefited from the steady price.
Market research firm GlobalData Retail analyst Kate Ormrod said Primark's strong UK sales growth in late 2017 allowed it to outpace Next.
Primark has a 6.9% share of the UK apparel market, while Next accounts for 7.1%. Marks & Spencer remains the UK's largest apparel retailer with a 8.% market share.
Ormrod said: "The apparel industry is polarized and mid-tier companies like Next, Marks & Spencer and Debenhams are losing to high-end and less-expensive competitors, and Primark is good at luring consumers."
Next, Marks & Spencer, and Debenhams are off, while Primark continues to expand. Next Christmas sales growth was mainly online, with ecommerce sales up 13.6% and high street sales down 6.1%.
Primark plans to open a 1.2 million square foot retail outlet overseas this year. It opened a retail store in Charlton, south London, England, and opened a bigger store in Rotherham in November 2017.
The rise of Primark also mirrors the changes in the grocery market - the market share of traditional supermarkets is shifting to discount retailers Aldi and Lidl.
John Bason, chief financial officer of Associated British Foods (ABF) at Primark's parent company, said that while many of its rivals said the Christmas season in 2017 was extremely upset, especially for high street retailers, the Coupons for Zaful number of visitors to Primark's UK stores was up.
Primark in the UK performed significantly better than the rest of Europe, and analysts said sales in Europe fell 6%.
On January 18, analysts downgraded its performance, plunging 3.6% after ABF failed to perform well in other European countries and after a 12% drop in revenue from its sugar business as product prices fell.
Part of the reason for the decline in most parts of Europe is the unusually warm weather in October in many countries in the region. The sales of Primark's existing stores, especially the Netherlands, have also been slipping off in many new stores.
Primark's strong growth is against the UK megatrend, and it does not sell its products online, missing out to some ecommerce consumers.
According to monthly sales data from the British Retail Consortium and KPMG, total retail sales of non-staple foods in the UK fell 1.4% in the three months ended December 30, 2017, a decrease from 3 The largest since Gap EU Promo Code month. Non-food electricity supplier sales rose 6.2%.
According to Bason, Primark's website and social media home pages play an important role in attracting consumers to store purchases.
The company has 11 million followers, nearly half of whom are Instagram users. With more and more young people browsing the fashion product on their cellphones before getting to the store, Primark's social media homepage is rapidly gaining momentum.
