Over 45% of Bucharest residents buy clothes and footwear from shopping malls, Romania’s capital being the city with the largest number of malls, according to a recent GfK study.

The trend is different from other large cities where less than 30% of inhabitants go to shopping malls to buy clothes. Romanians living in cities with fewer than 200,000 inhabitants prefer to buy their clothes from specialized street shops or markets.

The study also reveals that over 70% of those buying clothes at least once every 3 months make the purchase at the mall, while only 50% of respondents buy this often from specialized street shops.

“Frequent buyers are also those who purchase clothing items online, but the online sales of clothes are much better represented in Bucharest, compared to the rest of the country – 11% of Bucharest residents say they buy clothes online frequently, compared to just 5% in the rest of the country,” said Iulia Pencea, Group Account Manager GfK Romania.

A quarter of Bucharest residents frequently buy clothing items from outlets that sell famous brands, according to the study.

Promotions are also successful among Romanians, one third of the respondents saying that they are waiting for the promotions period to buy clothes.

About 15% of Romanians from urban areas spent over RON 200 (some EUR 45) on clothes in the last month, the rate being higher among Bucharest residents – 22%. Most Romanians buy clothes once every 2-3 months.

Clothing retailer H&M leads the top of most visited brand stores, both at a national level and in Bucharest. The other specialized stores preferred by Romanians in large cities and in Bucharest are Kenvelo, Zara, C&A, Bershka, Pull&Bear, New Yorker, Stradivarius, Mango and Koton.

The study was conducted by GfK Romania on a sample of 1,000 people aged over 15.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com