- Carrefour admits that it sees which food products customers give up first, and which they choose when looking for additional savings. Owners of shopping centers have similar observations
- The clothing industry is looking for a slowdown. Although here the cooling of customer enthusiasm has not yet arrived, there are many indications that after the autumn season, interest will drop noticeably
- The household appliances industry already admits that the market, after a very good sales period since the outbreak of the pandemic, has so far become saturated. Domestic producers are reducing their production capacity also due to weaker demand from abroad
- Although electronics are also slowing down, online retailers are still triumphant. Although, as they say, customers no longer buy parts of the equipment on the trunk, as until recently
- More such information can be found on the main page of Onet.pl
The latest retail sales data in July indicate a strong slowdown. Although the results are still significantly better than a year ago, this is largely due to high inflation. Including it, the increase is minimal and amounts to only 2%. Analysts indicate that retail sales are unlikely to increase in the coming months. And salespeople can already see that customer enthusiasm has declined – if they don’t have to, they aren’t spending as much. What do they save on in the first place?
Own brands and less organic food
The slowdown is even visible in grocery stores. Although in this case the stores do not complain about the lack of customers, they indicate that they carefully check every zloty before shopping, which translates into filling their baskets. – Purchasing strategies are more rational and thoughtful. Customers prepare in advance for purchases, which makes their decisions less spontaneous, and in most cases only the necessary items from the list go to shopping carts – admits Piotr Lubiewa -ieleżyński, director of the department for the development of formats and commercial concepts in Carrefour Polska.
The rest of the article under the video:
He adds that customers are giving up organic food and increasingly choosing cheaper private label counterparts. – Basic food items and those necessary for the household remain among the most popular categories. We observe reducing the scale of purchases of BIO productswhich reflects the trend across the market, but there is no decline in interest in other premium segment grocery products in our stores. Among the products that go to our customers’ baskets, the share of private label products is growing. Customers willingly choose products with the Carrefour logo due to their good quality and affordable price. By design, these products are 20-30 percent. cheaper than their branded counterparts – he admits.
Fast-food instead of slow, more careful with renovations
Some shopping malls notice similar trends, although according to the data of the Polish Council of Shopping Centers, the number of visitors in July was 5.4 percent. higher than in the pre-pandemic 2019 – Taking into account the situation in the country, we expected a slowdown after the post-vacation period, and we can see the first signs of it now. Turnover in July was still higher than last year (by 8.1%), but it is lower than the value recorded in May and June – admits Sławomir Murawski, director of the Manufaktura gallery in Łódź.
– The current economic situation has the greatest impact on the catering industry. It is mainly about increased operating costs. Despite this fact, restaurateurs are recording an increase in turnover, although an interesting trend is a marked increase in attractiveness fast food restaurants in relation to slow food, considered by customers to be more expensive – he adds.
– Another visible trend is decreased interest building materials and interior design. This is, of course, due to the reduction in the number of credits granted, as well as a large increase in their costs. On the other hand, promotions concerning food products are becoming more and more popular among buyers – continues Manufaktura’s director.
Clothes running but ready for the brake
The representatives of the clothing industry, who expect that the fall in demand will hit them in the first place, are also expecting a marked slowdown. They admit that the end of the holiday season is traditionally a time that builds customer interest. Over time, however, the slowdown may also reach here.
– In a pessimistic scenario, we expect a decline in demand in the coming periods, but rather mild. However, we want to be prepared for the possible risk of a deeper or longer decline in demand. To this end, we sell stocks from previous seasons to avoid situations where we are simultaneously under the pressure of decreasing sales and high inventory levels. We also carefully and prudently plan orders for new collections, i.e. spring-summer 2023 – says Janusz Płocica, president of the board of the VRG group, which includes the Vistula and Wólczanka brands.
Also read: Inflation hits not only wallets. A disturbing poll among Poles
Other big players assess the situation in a similar way. “At the moment, we can talk about the interest in changing clothes in connection with the upcoming autumn and the approaching return to schools or offices after the holidays. During this period, our offer is usually particularly popular, so we do not feel the effects of the economic slowdown yet. market conditions, we do not rule out a possible reduction in consumer spending in the clothing sector in the coming months, because clothes are not part of the basic necessity group. However, we expect that in the coming season, customer interest may be focused mainly on brands offering cheaper products “- states in the message LPP’s responses to us, which include, among others Cropp, Reserved and House brands.
Electronics and household appliances at a crossroads
The household appliances industry also admits that a fairly serious slowdown in demand can be seen, after the increased interest, first resulting from confinement at home during the pandemic, and then the demand related to the arrival of refugees in Poland.
But now it is more difficult. – So far, as an industry, we have managed to defend the high results of last year, and in terms of value, we even had positive increases of more than ten percent, although this is largely due to the inflationary increase in prices. However, we have been observing since the middle of the year the sudden collapse of the market was probably caused by the high caution of consumers – comments Wojciech Konecki, president of the Applia AGD Employers’ Association.
Also read: Poland is a giant in this industry. Now there is a collapse in demand
The industry is also suffering from a slowdown in orders from other countries. – Our factories were hard hit by the drop in demand on European markets, significantly reducing production. Now this negative trend has also affected the Polish market. We take into account a further decline in demand, associated not only with rising inflation and consumer caution, but also with the economic slowdown and the real impoverishment of the society. We hope that this situation will last no longer than 2-3 quarters – he points out.
At the same time, he admits that savings force them to focus on very energy-efficient products. – Customers began to meticulously count and appreciate, for example the fact that thanks to the dishwasher they can save electricity and water compared to washing by hand – says Wojciech Konecki.
Online electronics are doing well
However, lower rates do not mean that everyone is in trouble. Online electronics retailers have no cause for concern. They declare that despite the increased interest in their assortment already during the pandemic, the demand continues, although it is subject to noticeable changes.
– We do not observe such visible changes in the portfolio of customer spending as during COVID-19. The fact is that we have situational increases – for example, after February 24, the interest in power generators has increased significantly. In some product categories drops are visible, for example in computer components. In the categories so far basic – electronics – the trend is not positive, but we associate it more with the “correction” after COVID, fall in the cryptocurrency exchange rate and other factors – explains Wojciech Pawlik, marketing director at Morele.net.
– At the moment, we do not see any greater tightening of the belt. I would even say the opposite is true, as the average value of the basket has increased in recent months. We have a hypothesis for this, but of course it is only an assumption. We suspect that prices in the tourism sector made people give up vacation trips, they put on “summer in the city”. Thanks to this, they could afford to make their vacation at home a little more attractive. That is why they buy more powerful computers or smartphones with a much better camera – says Kamil Szwarbuła, spokesman for x-kom.