Retail is disappearing in Russia: a third of clothing stores have closed and new brands are going online
30 October 18:50
Cosmetics, clothing, and footwear stores are closing en masse in Russia. According to the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine, the share of closed clothing stores in Moscow shopping centers has already reached 38%, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports.
The country’s fashion market is experiencing its deepest crisis since 2015: in the first nine months of 2025, only 27 new brands entered the Russian market, half as many as last year.
Why it matters
After Western brands left in 2022-2023, the Russian government tried to fill the market with “parallel imports” and local substitutes. But today, even these mechanisms do not help: rents are rising, purchasing power is falling, and banks are raising loan rates.
Many companies are now abandoning offline sales and switching to marketplaces to survive.
What analysts say
The NWRU explains that market development is possible only under conditions of economic stabilization and lower credit costs. The experience of 2015 shows that recovery from such a crisis can take at least three years.
In the current environment, when the Russian economy is increasingly dependent on military spending and sanctions restrictions are only getting tighter, the outlook for retail remains bleak.
While the market is shrinking in Russia, Ukrainian retail is growing. In the first half of 2025, the turnover of companies in this sector grew by 17% to UAH 936.6 billion.
This shows that even during the war, domestic demand in Ukraine is gradually recovering.
