Anastasia Ptukha, general director of Step by Step group of companies, dedicated the presented research to the New Year’s market of fir tree decorations. Download the presentation

The market of New Year’s goods has a strong seasonal pattern. High demand and retail trade start in November and continue almost till the end of January. Over the past three years, we have observed the market’s contraction due to a number of reasons:

• Crisis phenomena in the economy;
• Decline in real income of the population;
• Decline in demand;
• Decline in import volumes of New Year’s goods.

In 2015 the import of New Year’s and Christmas festive goods has dropped by 37%, in 2016 the decline was 28%, in 2017 the import has increased by 37% by volume. China still remains the biggest exporter of New Year’s goods on the Russian market; its share amounts to 87% by volume.

The segment of glass decorations is rapidly decreasing in the Russian manufacture of fir tree decorations, in 2016 the decline in manufacture amounted to 83%, at the same time there are also positive changes: the manufacture of electrical plastic fir tree decorations has increased by 143% and the manufacture of fir tree decorations made from other materials (except for glass) has increased by 196%.

The import volume of artificial fir trees in 2016 has practically stayed the same as in 2015. The import volume of real fir trees in 2016 was less than the import of real fir trees  in 2015 by 96%.

Trade networks note that in 2017 the demand for fir trees has become much earlier and more active. Market analysts state that the average bill for an artificial fir tree has increased from 2.2 thousand rubles to 2.4 thousand rubles per piece. At the end of November the demand growth rate started to rise by 20% a week. The increase in demand was affected by last year’s deferred demand, when customers used to save more. According to surveys of the Russian Public Opinion Research Center conducted this year, customers has increased their expenses for fir trees by 9%.

Step by Step group of companies is a research and consulting group offering a full range of services in the sphere of management, investment and marketing consulting, marketing and sociological research. Customers of the holding are Russian and foreign companies, business and municipal representatives of the Russian Federation.