In December, the busiest shopping month of the year, Retail sales fell by 11% in value (with the clothing and footwear sector recording a decline of approximately 60% and the electrical goods sector a decline of over 20%), a development that foreshadows an even sharper «plunge» in sales for the first few months of 2021.
It is telling, in fact, that business leaders are now talking about purchasing it Easter, with the president of the Hellenic Confederation of Commerce and Entrepreneurship (ESEE), G. Karanikas, stating that We can't let this sales season slip away, either.
Representatives of various organizations and heads of business groups have repeatedly emphasized that Hybrid market models—such as “click away,” “click inside,” and e-commerce—are not enough to keep businesses in even a fragile balance. At the same time, the «accordion effect» the market has undergone is creating a myriad of operational problems, ranging from fulfilling the «backlog» of orders to restocking the warehouses themselves, and from managing furloughs and retail employees to formulating a strategy for the coming months.
As noted by INEMY-ESEE, The losses recorded in the retail sector reflect the market's distorted functioning. One characteristic of this distortion is that over the past three months (December 2020–February 2021) the market has operated at three different paces: a. “click-away” during the holiday season, b. unrestricted access to retail stores starting January 18, which, however, lasted only until the end of the month in certain regions, and c. a combination of the “click-away” and “click-in-shop” methods until February 10 for Attica, Thessaloniki, Achaea, and Euboea.
All of this is happening at a time when domestic consumption appears to be gaining momentum, with a number of companies reporting strong sales performance during specific «windows» such as January 2021.
With the market's reopening date and operating procedures still unknown at this time, Companies are accumulating liabilities and don't know what to do with their unsold inventory. Retailers selling seasonal merchandise describe the extension of the sales period through the end of March as «a consolation for the sick.» Already during the first phase of the winter sales, given that the market is not functioning normally, 9 out of 10 retail businesses reported a drop in sales, according to findings by INEMY of the Hellenic Confederation of Commerce and Entrepreneurship (ESEE). Retailers also report that, on the one hand, discounted products would have been offered anyway, but that their profit margins have been squeezed since 2020 in order to move their inventory by any means necessary.
Since spring is just around the corner, they report that In the second half of May, «it will be hard to sell coats, but we’re more likely to «wear» them”… Supplies for the new season and the coming months remain extremely low, at a rate of up to 30% below last year's corresponding figures, in an effort to help businesses adapt to the new circumstances pandemic, demand restraint, and restrictive measures. This conservative stance foreshadows a presumed market contraction, as commercial enterprises are indirectly «anticipating» a decline in sales at this level.
