Fashion during the festive season in the Netherlands: expanding challengers gain ground in a competitive Christmas market
The festive season remains one of the most decisive periods for fashion retailers.
Between 17 November 2025 and 4 January 2026, Dutch shoppers visited fashion stores in large numbers — not only around Black Friday, but throughout the gifting and holiday period.
Using Accurat’s AI-powered market research, this behavioural analysis compares the full Christmas season with the same weeks last year. Thanks to Accurat’s always-on measurement approach, this type of analysis can be delivered shortly after the retail period has ended, giving brands rapid insight into what changed, where momentum shifted, and how different shopper audiences distributed their visits across the leading fashion retailers included in this study.
A market led by large incumbents, increasingly challenged by expanding players
Wibra, C&A, Zeeman, Primark and H&M form the leading group of fashion destinations in the Netherlands during the festive season. Together, they capture the largest shares of fashion visits among the key retailers analysed.
Yet compared with last year, the relative shifts in visit share reveal growing pressure on several — though not all — of these large incumbents.
C&A (–7.8%), Primark (–6.0%), H&M (–9.2%) and Wibra (–2.5%) recorded softer festive performance than in 2024.
Zeeman, by contrast, held its position more firmly, maintaining a stable presence among the market leaders.
At the same time, several smaller and mid-sized players posted clear growth.
New Yorker (+23.0%), De Bijenkorf (+13.6%), Takko Fashion (+13.1%), TK Maxx (+11.9%), Only (+8.2%) and terStal (+6.7%) all strengthened their visit share year-on-year.
The performance of Takko Fashion stands out in particular. Its strong relative growth coincides with the brand’s continued expansion of its store network in the Netherlands, underlining how physical accessibility remains a competitive advantage during peak shopping periods.
At the other end of the spectrum, The Sting (–13.3%), WE Fashion (–5.7%) and M&S Mode (–6.0%) recorded softer festive results.
Overall, the data shows a market where large incumbents retain scale, but incremental festive footfall is increasingly captured by mid-sized and expanding challengers in an intensely competitive Christmas landscape.
Different audiences, different shopping destinations
Accurat’s audience view shows how different household types distribute their fashion visits during the festive period.
Among households with children, Wibra captures the largest share of visits, followed by C&A, Zeeman, Primark, H&M and terStal.
In practical terms: when families go fashion shopping during the Christmas period, these brands are most frequently part of their store mix.
For one-person households, the visit distribution looks different. Tk Maxx and De Bijenkorf attract relatively higher shares in this segment, while C&A, Zeeman, Wibra, terStal and M&S Mode capture lower shares, reflecting their stronger orientation towards family and multi-person household shopping behaviour.
Rather than one audience group dominating the season, the festive period shows a segmented visit landscape, where each household type follows its own preferred set of retailers. For brands, this underlines the importance of understanding which audiences they win — and which they leave to competitors during peak trading weeks.
Audience selectivity: how strongly brands over-index on family shoppers
Accurat’s audience selectivity index examines the composition of each brand’s visitor base. It indicates how strongly a brand over- or under-indexes on a given audience segment compared with the fashion market average. In this analysis, the focus is on households with children, showing each brand’s relative strength within this segment.
In simple terms: if the typical fashion retailer sees a baseline share of visits coming from households with children, the index reveals which brands over-index on this audience — meaning a larger proportion of their visitors are families — and which brands attract a more mixed customer base.
M&S Mode (113.8%), Takko Fashion (106.1%) and The Sting (105.8%) display the highest selectivity indices. This indicates that a larger share of their visits comes from households with children than is typical in the fashion market — confirming their strong positioning within family shopping behaviour during the festive season.
The result for M&S Mode is particularly striking. As a women’s fashion retailer without a children’s assortment, the brand still strongly over-indexes on households with children — suggesting that mothers remain a key driver of its festive-season traffic.
By contrast, TK Maxx and New Yorker show notably lower selectivity indices, meaning they attract a smaller proportion of households with children than the market average. This points to a visitor base that skews more towards individual and non-family shoppers.
Broader-format retailers such as Primark (94.6%) and De Bijenkorf (90.1%) also sit below the market benchmark, reflecting a more evenly balanced visitor mix across household types rather than a strong family focus.
What this tells us about festive shopping behaviour
The festive period remains a critical moment for fashion retailers, with measurable shifts in visit distribution across brands and shopper segments compared with last year’s season. At the same time, the momentum of brands expanding their physical presence highlights how store networks and local accessibility continue to play an important role in festive shopping behaviour.
Retailers compete locally and segment by segment. Understanding which customer groups you attract — and which you miss — is what turns festive footfall into real market advantage.