Eastern Europe

Retail e-commerce, which had experienced rapid growth during the pandemic, saw a year-on-year decline in constant value terms in 2022, as rising prices affected consumers’ willingness to spend money on discretionary items. The ending of VAT…

Retail e-commerce sales in Slovakia in 2022 witnessed a major slowdown, after the pandemic restrictions were lifted. Consumers flocked back to retail stores, leaving pure e-commerce players who invested heavily in their logistics and distribution…

Growth in retail e-commerce current value sales in 2022 was up on 2021. While this was partly due to rapidly rising inflation, the improvement also reflected the fact that changes recently brought about by COVID-19 have greatly strengthened the…

Bulgaria maintains the lowest share of online purchasing in the EU, in notable contrast to neighbouring countries that are also members of the EU, such as Romania, Hungary and the Baltic states, where e-commerce is growing at a much more rapid rate.…

2022 saw limited-service restaurants record a positive sales performance, although value growth rates in constant terms were somewhat slower than what was registered in 2021. Value growth rates were higher in current terms however due to high…

Hypermarkets saw unprecedented promotional activity in 2022, as the leading players worked to mitigate the effects of the inflationary environment on consumer spending behaviour. Leader Kaufland, for example, gave its customers the opportunity to…

Kaufland Slovenska Republika remained the leader in 2022 and recorded the highest increase in sales. The player operates a store format with a wide range of assorted grocery and non-grocery products while offering discounted prices and promotions.…

Hypermarkets was by far the weakest performer among the main modern grocery retailers channels in current value growth terms in 2022, and the only one to post a decline in outlet numbers. Its results were dragged down by the final exit of Tesco from…

The hypermarkets channel achieved the second fastest value growth amongst modern grocery retailers in 2022. The high rate of inflation additionally boosted the value performance of modern grocery retailers, including hypermarkets, during the year.…

Home products specialists a sluggish performance in constant value terms in 2022. This was due -to the continued economic repercussions of the COVID-19 crisis, coupled with rising energy prices, which caused many consumers to delay home improvement…

The retail sales of home products specialists during 2022 were driven by rising prices. Home improvement and gardening stores saw strong sales during the pandemic and the performance continued, albeit only in value terms. The main contributors to…

Despite substantial price increases amidst soaring inflation, overall current value sales growth for home products specialists in 2022 was slightly weaker than in 2021. Trade in the two largest channels of home improvement and gardening stores and…

New designs, frequent new product launches, consumer desire for novelties and social media influence have all been amongst the main drivers of growth within the home products specialist retailers channel over the review period. These trends are being…

Amongst health and beauty specialists, beauty specialists benefitted the most from the return to pre-pandemic lifestyles in 2022. Following the easing of lockdown restrictions, consumers resumed socialising with family and friends, as well as…

Robots and artificial intelligence (AI) systems help with handing out pharmaceutical products to pharmacists and speed up consumer visits. This kind of new technology was being tested by Dr Max in 2022 in places where limited storage space is…

Health and beauty specialists showed an improved performance in current value growth terms in 2022. This was partly due to price increases imposed to offset inflationary pressures, though sales were also buoyed as life in Poland continued to return…

Health and beauty specialists has continued to benefit from the impact of COVID-19 on consumer health consciousness even during the post-pandemic period. Following the pandemic, consumers continue to prioritise their health and, as they pay more…

General merchandise stores, which comprises department stores and variety stores, experienced declining sales in constant value terms in 2022. Department stores were hit particularly hard by the COVID-19 crisis when mandatory store closures and other…

TEDi Betriebs sro, with a majority of standalone outlets, remained the leading player in general merchandise stores in 2022 and was followed by Tchibo Slovensko. The latter focuses on marketing and promotions and runs weekly discounts on a limited…

In keeping with its performance throughout the review period, the variety stores channel recorded high double-digit growth in current value sales in 2022. The wide assortments and competitive pricing strategies of these retailers became more…