Magazine: Retail has no choice but to keep going forward

Laurel organised their two-day Retail 2011 conference in Siófok, where the company’s owner-managing director István Bessenyei highlighted in his keynote speech that the appearance of smartphones has a strong influence on shops and retail – and shop owners have to be able to utilise this knowledge. Economist Dr Mihály Kupa told in his presentation that Europe and Hungary are suffering from the lack of stability and confidence.

According to him, in Hungary taxes will grow by 7 percent next year, real wages will be 2.5 percent lower and the level of inflation will be around 5 percent. László Murányi, Co-op Hungary Zrt.’s CEO spoke about expanding their integrated system to another few hundred stores. Based on their database they are going to establish a one-million-strong nationwide loyalty programme by the end of 2012. Nikoletta Bene, deputy marketing manager with Spar Hungary introduced their 20th anniversary marketing campaign, which aimed at changing Spar’s image of a store selling ‘quality but expensive products’. Tesco’s operations director Gábor Dolmányos revealed that their self-service checkouts were very popular among shoppers: 25 percent of customers were using them and as a result Tesco was able to cut wage costs significantly in just 3-6 months. The first day ended with a roundtable discussion about the relationship of retail and politics. Dr László Szöllősi, deputy secretary of state of the Ministry for National Economy told that there has been a recession since 2006, so retailers should not blame the government’s quick decision making. The programme of the second day focused on modern forms of retail and IT solutions.