GfK has analysed the European retail sector

GfK’s ‘European retail in 2019’ study analyses trends and developments in 32 European countries, and it makes sales forecasts for 2019, serving as a kind of handbook for decision-makers in the sector. Head of research Dr Johannes Schamel told: GfK predicts a 2-percent sales growth in retail in the EU-27 for 2019. This growth will be hardly bigger than the inflation rate. Some of the study’s findings follow next.

Purchasing power: in 2018 the average consumer living in the EU-27 had EUR 16,878 to spend – 3 percent more money than in 2017. János Kui, head of industry sales at GfK Hungary added that Hungarian purchasing power grew by 7 percent to EUR 6.654/person.

Sales forecast for 2019: GfK predicts dynamic growth in online retail and a 2-percent sales increase in the offline channel in the EU-27. As for Hungary, the forecast is a nearly 3.5-percent sales growth.

Inflation rate: GfK’s experts calculate with a lower inflation rate than in 2018 – the inflation is likely to be around 1.6 percent in the EU-27 this year. In Hungary prices are expected to get 2.8 percent higher – this would be one of the highest inflation rates in the EU countries.

Sales area: the floor space of grocery stores grew in all the countries examined in 2018, but this growth was smaller than in former years. Per capita floor space was 1.13m² in 2018 in the EU-27; in Hungary the same number was 1.03m².

Sales area productivity: there was no change in this respect in comparison with 2017 – Luxembourg was the No.1 at EUR 7,250/m², followed by Norway at EUR 6,430/m² and Switzerland with EUR 6,220/m². Hungary belongs to the same category as Slovakia, Estonia and Lithuania, where the sales area productivity is EUR 3,000-3,500/m². //