500 children's stores in Russia closed due to demographic decline 0 23

In Russian regions, there is a mass closure of children's stores. Experts link the collapse in demand for children's goods to a sharp decline in birth rates and strong competition between the offline segment and online networks. Will it be possible to overcome the growing crisis?

In million-plus cities of Russia, there were about 8,100 children's clothing stores operating in January 2026. This is 16% less than a year earlier and almost 25% less than in 2021, according to experts from the 2GIS service. In Moscow, 16% of such points closed in the last year, and over five years — almost 20%, with only about 2,000 stores remaining instead of 2,500.

Sales of children's goods decreased by 8% in 2025, while the volumes of children's clothing and footwear sales are collapsing at double-digit rates. It is becoming increasingly difficult for retail points to operate under such conditions. Losing their resilience, children's brands Loloclo and Orby completely ceased operations in the country in 2025, while the retailer Pelican also decided to close its branches. This season, the Motherbear children's goods store chain may lose a third of its points in the Russian Federation.

According to Vedomosti, one of the most troubled regions in the country regarding the overall decline in the number of clothing stores is Nizhny Novgorod, where the number of offline sales points decreased by 23% over five years.

Antonina Tsitsulina from the Association of Children's Goods points to the unprofitability of points due to decreased traffic and competition with online and non-specialized networks. According to her calculations, the country has lost about 500 children's goods stores over the past two years. However, competition is far from the only reason for the problems.

In 2024, 1.222 million children were born in Russia. This is the lowest number since 1999, and in the first quarter of 2025, the birth rate reached a record low in more than 20 years of observations.

The total fertility rate (TFR) at the end of 2025 fell to 1.374 — the lowest level since 2006, with a necessary reproduction rate of 2.1.

The natural population decline in 2024 was about 500,000 people. The number of women of childbearing age is also decreasing: from 34.2 million in 2024, it is projected to decrease to 27.4 million by 2046, according to VCIOM.

At the same time, Rosstat sharply limited the publication of statistics related to the demographic situation in the country.