LONDON — People just can’t get enough of in-store shopping, especially for fashion and sweetness, in response to Cushman & Wakefield’s latest European Retail Radar report.

In the primary six months of 2023, fashion brands leased essentially the most shop space in comparison with another variety of retailer. The brands accounted for greater than 40 percent of retail floor space leased across Europe by Cushman & Wakefield.

The true estate services firm said it analyzed nearly 1,000 retail real estate transactions across Europe and located that nearly all of the deals were made by mass market fashion retailers.

Other brands fast opening doors across the region include the French down-jacket retailer JOTT (Just Over the Top) and the U.S. sportswear retailer Lids.

Fashion also accounted for the biggest share of leases for larger spaces — larger than 11,000 square feet — within the period.

Cushman said fashion accounted for nearly one-third of all deals for all unit sizes but, for the biggest units, it represented greater than 40 percent of deals.

Other retailers going for larger spaces tended to be home and do-it-yourself, mixed goods and leisure brands.

“The pessimistic cries concerning the demise of brick-and-mortar retail now feel like a distant memory as physical retail enters a latest norm,” said Rob Travers, head of Europe, the Middle East and Africa Retail at Cushman & Wakefield.

“While core retail sectors proceed to dominate transactional activity, emerging trends are bringing latest brands into the marketplace. Our evaluation clearly shows that physical retail stays vital as brand touch points, supporting customer engagement and a wider range of business activity. And retailers proceed to turn out to be more demanding of their retail real estate,” Travers added.

The report said the food and beverage sector was the second most lively when it comes to the variety of transactions within the period.

F&B accounted for 17 percent of the whole variety of deals done, and represented 8 percent of the whole volume of space let, barely up from volumes within the corresponding period last 12 months.

Operators committing to space included the Belgian casual dining chain Hawaiian Poké Bowl and the U.S. chicken fast-food chain Popeyes, which continues to expand in Europe. 

Health and sweetness operators, particularly premium brands, were also highly acquisitive in the primary half of 2023 with the quantity of space transacted almost twice that of the corresponding period last 12 months.

Jo Malone, Aesop, Freshly Cosmetics, MAC and Space NK have been particularly lively, in response to the report.  

Cushman added that activity within the six months was dominated by demand for small units.

Across the whole sample of nearly 5,000 transactions because the starting of 2021, greater than 80 percent of deals were for units of lower than 6,500 square feet, with the smallest units of lower than 2,200 square feet accounting for greater than half of all deals.

Cushman also checked out the explanations behind the spike in demand, and located they were a desire to create experiences, and to point out off automotive innovations.

The report pointed to recent openings by Paradox Museum and Museum of Illusions in places comparable to London, Hamburg, Barcelona, Athens, Budapest and Dublin.

It also mentioned the Netflix “Stranger Things” installation in Milan, and the “Friends” Experience of interactive sets inspired by the TV show in cities across Europe.

The report said as consumers turn out to be more demanding of recent and exciting in-person experiences, culture and entertainment-based experiential brands are expected to require more room on each shorter- and longer-term bases.

It added that electric automotive firms comparable to Lucid, Polestar, HiPhi, Vinfast and NI0 have all invested in latest retail spaces in recent times. Others — comparable to Chinese vehicle makers BYD and Xpend in addition to U.S. giant GM — are planning to launch or expand in European markets within the near term.

The retail spaces they’re typically creating include vehicle showroom space and areas that create “brand discovery and customer engagement in other ways,” Cushman said.