Retailing

Restrictions on movement, changing consumer preferences and the heightened focus on safety triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic are anticipated to alter the future of consumer mobility, urban planning and construction. The surge in homeworking, reduced…

Convenience stores recovered with positive growth in retail value terms in 2021, following the sharp decline in value sales in 2020, when shops were forced to operate reduced opening hours or stay closed. All the same, as many convenience stores are…

Departments stores registered a rebound after outlet closures during the 2020 lockdowns. With stores operating at normal capacity, current values sales registered a healthy increase. However, value sales were still lower than before the onset of…

E-commerce continued to gain significant value share in 2021. While growth was not as high as in 2020, when value sales increased by more nearly third, there was very healthy double-digit value growth in 2021. The fact that online shopping continued…

Food and drink e-commerce registered an exponential rise in value sales during the height of the pandemic in 2020. In 2021, with society opening up, current value sales fell, but were still significantly higher than before the onset of COVID-19. The…

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…

Unlike many other retailers during the 2020 pandemic, home and gardening performed well, as with people confined to home, home improvement and gardening stores performed well, as consumers look to renovation work and gardening during the lockdowns.…

Homeshopping has been on a constant downward trend over the review period and this continued into 2021, with a further decline in value sales. Homeshopping is losing ground to online sales, with the profile of homeshopping consumers mainly older…

Mobile e-commerce registered an even higher increase in current value sales in 2021 than e-commerce overall and mobile e-commerce now accounts for nearly half of total e-commerce sales. The healthy growth is supported by very high penetration of…

Traditional grocery retailers gained from the pandemic lockdowns, as with people’s movements being restricted, they shopped in local neighbourhood stores. Essentially COVID-19 had the effect of boosting the growing trend for shopping locally and…