Retailing

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has triggered the most severe global recession in nearly a century. Businesses are operating in a world of anxieties and uncertainties, not knowing what will be the new normal or when output and consumer spending…

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has triggered the most severe global recession since World War II. In Q4 2020, the end of the pandemic started as countries began administering effective vaccines among the population; however, vaccine distribution…

While Western European store-based retailing was badly hit by Coronavirus (COVID-19) in 2020, grocery retailers, which remained open throughout lockdowns, experienced a spike in sales due to the pandemic. Supermarkets, in particular, benefited from a…

Health and beauty specialists registered a slight decline in value sales in 2021, due to its largest channel, chemists/pharmacies, registering a significant drop in value sales, as consumers were less concerned about COVID-19. Also, as many consumers…

Driven by significant price increases, overall health and beauty specialists saw strong growth in value sales in Austria in 2023, roughly at the same level as retail offline overall. Consumers' willingness to spend in this category has generally…

Health and beauty specialists in Belgium continued to enjoy positive growth in current value terms in 2023. However, this driven mainly by inflationary pressures, as retailers, squeezed by rising input costs, were forced to raise their prices. Within…

Health and beauty specialists continued to see some benefit from consumers’ return to retail shopping in Denmark in 2023. However, although the Danish economy as a whole was performing relatively well in 2023 with falling unemployment and inflation,…

Health and beauty specialists in Finland is the second biggest non-grocery channel in Finland and is a category of growing importance. One of the main reasons for this growth is that pharmacy products are mostly essential. A high share of overall…

Beauty specialists benefitted from the continued post-pandemic return to increased time spent socialising and working outside of the home in France in 2023. Demand rose in categories like colour cosmetics, among others. Similarly, optical goods…

Following a marginal decline the previous year, health and beauty specialists in Germany recorded moderate value growth in 2023, mainly driven by the rising demand for beauty and personal care products. With rising overall costs in Germany,…