General Merchandise Stores

The use of strict lockdown restrictions in Malaysia during 2020 and 2021 to control the spread of COVID-19 presented a significant challenge to many department stores. This was due to these retail outlets typically being located in busy city centre…

Sales from department stores saw strong growth in 2022 thanks to a significant improvement in footfall to bricks-and-mortar outlets in the first half of the year, following temporary store closures during the same period in the previous year. The…

Department stores were late to e-commerce, finally starting to get aggressive around 2014, introducing free shipping and returns to better compete with specialists. However, as more Australians moved online, and as social media platforms rose in…

2022 proved to be another tough year for China’s general merchandise stores, as the ongoing spread of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 resulted in tightened pandemic restrictions and reduced foot traffic. The decrease in customer visits had a direct…

The general merchandise stores channel includes department stores and variety stores, as both are characterised by selling a wide range of non-food products and to which consumers turn to buy various items in the same place, and to look for novelties…

Department stores registered a contraction in value sales in 2021, and also in 2022, with Falabella having closed its stores and left the country in 2021. As a result of Falabella’s departure, the Mexican player, Coppel, is the only department store…

Department stores was one of the hardest hit retail channels by the pandemic with sales suffering due to a sharp drop in tourism, reduced store traffic and declining discretionary spending. Furthermore, unlike other channels many department stores…

General merchandise stores saw continued decline in the Bulgarian market in 2022, falling further below pre-pandemic levels because shoppers’ patterns have changed ever since the outbreak of COVID-19. Increasingly consumers have shown a focus on…

As a result of the Yen depreciation, and the rising costs of imports and raw materials, the prices of many items available at general merchandise stores rose by approximately 10% in 2022. Isetan Mitsukoshi Holding is the leading player in department…

General merchandise stores is only represented by variety stores in Romania, which in itself is an underdeveloped retail channel, and one which remains unfamiliar to the majority of local consumers. Variety stores has never really developed as a…

Variety stores was one of the winning channels in non-grocery retailers in the last decade. In addition, while many non-grocery channels saw lower sales in constant terms in 2022 compared with 2012, this was not the case for variety stores, and this…

General merchandise stores saw solid current value growth in 2022. This was partly due to growth in department stores, as consumers could once again return to shopping in person. These stores were forced to close several times during the pandemic,…

General merchandise stores in Italy fully recovered to pre-pandemic value sales levels in 2022, driven by variety stores. The channel benefited from the greater willingness of Italians to return to physical shopping as restrictions eased, with…

Jumbo continued to lead variety stores category in Greece in 2022, holding almost 80% of retail value share. Despite facing a decline in sales during the pandemic, Jumbo managed to bounce back and come close to 2019 sales. The company began as a toys…

In India, the general merchandise stores channel is made up solely of department stores, as there are no variety stores in this country. After seeing double-digit current value growth in the earlier years of the review period, in 2020 department…

Department stores recorded a decline in current value terms in 2022. In recent years, there has been a trend towards the integration of online and offline retail, with many department stores offering both in-store shopping and online shopping…

Following a negative performance in 2020 due to mandated stores closures, and mobility and social life restrictions, the channel recovered partially in 2021 thanks to the gradual recovering of footfall during the year. In 2022, retail value sales in…

While there were no COVID-19 lockdowns in Sweden in 2020, unlike the majority of other European countries, and restrictions were much looser, the pandemic still resulted in a strong decrease in the number of visitors to department stores to avoid…

The intense and rapid investment needed from department stores in 2020 for them to level up their online strategies as a response to COVID-19 quarantines and the reduction in foot traffic, meant that as restrictions all but disappeared over 2022, it…

General merchandisers saw positive growth in 2022, thanks to department stores recording growth, although variety stores saw a contraction in constant value terms. The pandemic and the subsequent lockdown measures significantly impacted department…