Western Europe

Having seen solid growth in the previous year as the channel seemed to be recovering from the severe impact of the COVID-19 crisis, general merchandise stores saw sales decline again in Denmark in 2023. This came before the channel had returned to…

General merchandise stores in Belgium registered a slight decline in sales in current value terms in 2023, despite ongoing price rises. This was primarily due to the negative performance of department stores, which suffered from competition from…

General merchandise stores continued to significantly outperform retailing overall in terms of value sales growth due in the main to the continuing expansion and success of variety stores. It was one of the areas least affected by the generally sharp…

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…

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…

In 2023, discounters emerged as the largest and most dynamic format in the grocery retail sector in Turkey, passing out supermarkets in terms of value sales for the first time. The key factor driving this dynamism was the further openings of new…

Due to high inflation towards the end of the review period, resulting in elevated prices of goods and services, consumers became increasingly price conscious, supporting the second consecutive year of value growth for discounters in the UK. As…

With inflation remaining elevated in 2023 and disposable income decreasing, consumers were pushed to look for ways to save money. This benefited discounters, with these stores having a strong reputation for offering lower prices than supermarkets.…

Discounters benefitted from heightened price sensitivity in Switzerland in 2023. With average prices increasing across almost all areas of daily life, including in groceries, many local consumers sought to rein in their spending by purchasing…

Discounters in Sweden recorded the fastest retail current value growth among grocery retailers in 2023. The lower-cost grocery retail format was able to derive benefits from the slowdown in the Swedish economy connected to unstable geopolitical…