Shoe prices rose slightly in November in tandem with overall consumer retail prices, according to the latest data from the Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America (FDRA).
Last month, overall footwear prices rose a tepid 0.7 percent from a year earlier, the FDRA reported. Higher prices for men’s footwear, up 0.8 percent, and women’s shoes, up 1.6 percent, offset a 0.5 percent decline in children’s footwear prices in November.
And while shoe prices do seem to be moving in the wrong direction, FDRA noted that it does not see evidence to suggest retail footwear prices will go appreciably higher anytime soon.
What’s more, the FDRA said that this latest modest rise in retail footwear prices supports its long-held outlook for shoppers to pay only slightly higher prices in 2023. Indeed, the first eleven months of the year saw retail footwear prices up a scant 0.2 percent from the same period in 2022.
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“As we mentioned earlier, over the long term, average import costs for footwear tend to rise or fall in step with retail footwear prices,” Gary Raines, chief economist at FDRA, told FN. “We noted earlier this year that an usually wide gap between rising import costs and these mostly flat retail footwear prices had developed, due in part to a disjointed supply chain resulting from the pandemic. To close this gap, we looked for either retail footwear prices to go sharply higher or — more likely — landed costs to decline. Instead, these import costs indeed are sinking.”
“Already, the average import cost has declined year-over-year six of the last seven months and fell 13.8 percent in the latest month, the steepest drop in more than 26 years,” Raines added. “We expect these import costs will continue to retreat well into next year, narrowing this gap further in 2023 and effectively closing the gap in 2024 as the market returns to equilibrium in the wake of the pandemic.”
This latest rise in footwear prices comes at the same time the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that overall retail prices increased slightly in November from the previous month.
The bureau’s latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) saw prices increase 0.1 percent last month from October and up 3.1 percent from the same month last year. Excluding volatile food and energy costs, the core CPI rose 0.3 percent in November and 4.0 percent from the same month in 2022.
Shelter costs continued to rise in November, offsetting a 6 percent decline in gas prices. Energy costs fell 2.3 percent over last month, while food prices ticked up 0.2 percent from October. Other categories that increased in November included rent, medical care and motor vehicle insurance.
