Primark has long been a fixture of UK high streets, drawing shoppers with its affordable clothing, accessories, and home goods.
However, in its UK and Ireland stores, like-for-like sales, a crucial retail performance indicator, decreased by 3.1% in the year leading up to September. The company attributed this decline to a “weak” consumer environment and reduced demand for winter apparel during the unseasonably mild autumn of the previous year.
With online retailers like Shein and Vinted increasingly popular among younger consumers, the question arises: Is Primark facing a significant challenge to maintain its relevance, or is it well-positioned to weather the storm?
Tamara Sender-Ceron, an associate director at market research agency Mintel, notes that “While the UK clothing market is seeing subdued growth, Primark has significantly underperformed the overall market,” further emphasizing the “increased competition” the retailer faces.
Some shoppers point out that online marketplaces like Shein and Temu offer even lower prices, a broader product range, and the convenience of home delivery—a service Primark currently lacks.
At Primark’s flagship London store on Oxford Street, a BBC News team spoke with Serena Milius, who was browsing for pajamas, socks, and items from the new Stranger Things collection with her 12-year-old daughter.
Serena mentioned that Primark used to be her primary shopping destination until Shein gained prominence.
“Shein’s our main thing,” the 34-year-old finance manager from Tooting, South West London, stated.
She estimates that her wardrobe is now 90% Shein, and she only visits Primark for “little bits and bobs,” such as flip-flops, candles, socks, and cosmetic dupes.
Other shoppers told the BBC that they prefer investing in higher-quality products. Martha, a 23-year-old student in Leeds, only shops at Primark for basic items like T-shirts, socks, underwear, and cotton buds. For other purchases, she prefers Weekday, Zara, and independent boutiques.
“I like to buy more expensive items that I’m going to wear over the years,” she explained while browsing at a Primark store with her mother.
Primark has faced ongoing criticism for its “fast fashion” model, with shoppers expressing concerns about the durability of the products they purchase there.
“It’s not always a lasting item,” Martha added.
However, Primark’s product longevity lead, Vicki Swain, said that they have developed a Durability Framework that would help people get more wear from their purchases – no matter how much they can afford to spend.
“We’ve been investing in making our clothes more durable and also making them with more sustainable materials,” she told BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours programme.
During a BBC visit on a late Wednesday afternoon, the store was bustling with activity, with mostly female shoppers browsing alone or in pairs.
Some shoppers stated that they made a special trip to visit the store, while others were simply stopping by after finding themselves in the area.
Some shoppers find Primark’s large, sprawling stores, which can often become crowded, to be a deterrent.
“I do not enjoy shopping in a Primark,” said Abbi Lily, a 24-year-old content creator from near Bournemouth. She described the experience as “very overwhelming” and “overstimulating” and said it can be “impossible” to find things.
She used to buy most of her clothes from Primark, but feels it isn’t as cheap as it used to be.
“They just don’t have the bargains as much anymore,” she says, echoing comments some other shoppers made to the BBC.
Although Abbi occasionally shops at Shein, she is trying to be more “intentional” with her shopping and buy more second-hand items, including through Vinted and Depop.
A Primark spokesperson informed BBC News that 85% of its products are priced at £10 or less, and stated that the company “continually benchmarks” its prices against competitors.
Ms. Sender-Ceron at Mintel explained that Shein utilizes AI to identify trends and introduce “thousands of new styles daily.”
According to a Mintel survey conducted in May, 46% of UK women aged 16 to 34 had purchased fashion items from Shein in the past 12 months.
Shein has organized pop-up shops in London and recently opened its first permanent physical store in a department store in Paris, attracting long queues of customers eager to purchase discounted apparel.
“You can buy anything from Shein,” commented one shopper waiting in the French capital on the store’s opening day. “It’s such a cool thing for people my age who are struggling in this economy.”
However, as shoppers queued to enter the store, protesters shouted “Shame!” at them. The demonstrators were calling for a boycott of the brand due to the environmental impact of fast fashion and the working conditions in its factories.
Just over an hour after the new store opened, the French government also confirmed it was initiating proceedings to suspend Shein’s website, after prosecutors said they were investigating the company over childlike sex dolls found on its website.
Paris prosecutors are also investigating three other platforms – Temu, AliExpress and Wish.
Allegations surrounding the sale of childlike sex dolls on Shein first came to light from France’s anti-fraud office. Shein has promised to co-operate fully.
In a statement, the retailer said it had already temporarily suspended listings from independent third-party vendors.
While Shein specializes in delivering clothing directly to customers, Primark offers click-and-collect services at its nearly 200 UK stores, but does not provide delivery.
While some high-street retailers have faced challenges in the UK, Primark has generally defied the trend. The company is closing a store in Dartford, Kent, next year, which is reported to be its first store closure in a decade. It has also opened dedicated Primark Home stores in Belfast and Manchester.
Mr. Stevenson explains that Primark relies on customers making bulk purchases. “You might be going in for one thing, but you end up buying seven things that you hadn’t really thought about,” he says. He believes this is less likely to occur with online shopping.
Would Primark’s sales increase if it offered delivery services? Mr. Stevenson remains skeptical, stating that “it doesn’t feel like they’re losing out by not doing that,” but that it could be a future option.
“If you wanted to buy a couple of things from Primark for £5 each, are you going to pay 50% of that in delivery charge?” he asks. “Because buying £10 of stuff is going to cost me £5 to get it tomorrow.”
Primark’s spokesperson stated that its online model is a “deliberate choice to streamline operations and pass the savings directly to customers.”
Although Primark’s like-for-like sales in the UK and Ireland have declined, “I absolutely don’t think they’re doing badly,” says Mr. Stevenson, the Peel Hunt analyst. According to data from market research company Kantar, its UK and Ireland market share has grown.
Furthermore, its total global sales for the year ending in September increased by 1% compared to the previous year, driven by the opening of new stores in Europe and the US.
For some shoppers, Primark will always hold a special appeal. “I absolutely love Primark,” says Khloe Lightholder, a 34-year-old childcare worker from Essex.
She believes that Primark offers “actually quite good quality for the price,” and she visits the store every few months for a couple of hours, typically spending £200 or more on shoes, bags, perfume, and homeware. She sets a monthly budget, “but every time I go to Primark that budget is out of the window.”
The extent to which Shein and other budget retailers pose a threat remains an ongoing question. However, it seems unlikely that Primark’s signature brown shopping bags will disappear from UK high streets anytime soon.
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