The turnover of retail trade in switzerland in 2020 should fall to levels comparable to those of the previous year, in the absence of a second wave of coronavirus, writes GfK Switzerland.
The measures taken to combat the pandemic of Covid-19 have weighed on the business and continue to restrain growth, however, they have also some positive sides.
On the one hand, the shopping tourism has been strongly reduced during the containment, GfK is expecting a decline of 30% to 40% on the year as a whole. On the other hand, the tendency to remain in Switzerland during the summer holidays to have a positive impact on domestic demand.
Some sectors will benefit from a catch-up effect after the containment, others will be faced with difficulties. The absence of foreign tourists, could weigh on the sector of watchmaking and jewellery, said Sandra Wöhlert, in an interview with AWP.
In addition, the extraordinary situation has led many traders to strengthen or put in place for certain, the trade online. “Online activities have been developed practically everywhere, also in markets that until now was not active in this segment,” writes the market research institute.
E-commerce is expected to register this year an increase of 25% to 50% in non-food categories, according to the forecasts of GfK and the swiss Association for distance-selling (Asvad). The share of online sales on the sector as a whole should be around 10% (excluding purchases abroad).
The effects of the pandemic, the first concern for 44% of the Swiss surveyed by GfK, however, remain difficult to estimate. It is to be expected to store closures in the segment non-food, stationary trade is expected to fall 10% in 2020 in this sector.
Explosive growth of Digitec-Galaxus
Among the companies releasing their figures, Migros came first in the swiss retail in 2019, with sales of 14,39 billion (1.5% year on year), followed closely by co-Op and its to 13.39 billion (+0,6%). The supermarket Denner (+2,2% to 3.41 billion), Volg and Landi (each +1.1%, respectively, 1.52 and 1.40 for billion) round out the top 5.
Ikea has risen to the sixth place with sales of 1.14 billion (+3.7 per cent), followed by the subsidiary Digitec-Galaxus Migros and its explosive growth of 16.1% to 1.12 billion. Apart from Ikea, the entire top 10 is made up of swiss companies, at least if one takes into account only the companies publishing their figures for Switzerland.
Overall, the retail sector has returned to growth in 2019, for the first time since 2014. It was up 0.4% 91.7 billion swiss francs, according to statistics from GfK.
ats, awp
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