Since the end of the lockdown, the Christmas business has only got off to a strong start in retail. “There is light and shadow. The hope was to catch up more,” said WKÖ trade chairman Rainer Trefelik in an interview with APA. The development of the corona infection numbers would depress the buying mood and slow down shopping behavior.
Since December 7th, all shops have been open again after the three-week corona lockdown. On the last Saturday of shopping there was an increase in sales of cosmetics, books and sporting goods, among other things
give, but a clear drop in sales in clothing and jewelry, so the Chamber of Commerce representative. There was also a large drop in sales at retailers in areas that live heavily on tourism. Trade without gastronomy and tourism works poorly, according to Trefelik.
Hope for local shopping
The WKÖ trade chairman hopes that many gifts will be bought locally in the coming days before Christmas. A great many jobs in Austria would depend on this. For practical reasons related to the corona, there will probably be more gifts of money and
Land vouchers under the Christmas tree. The dealers hope that this will generate an economic boost for the industry at the end of December and beginning of January. Due to the corona-related ban on tourism businesses, retailers also lacked well-funded tourists in the ski areas in western Austria and Vienna at the beginning of January.
According to the WKÖ trade chairman, it is not yet possible to precisely estimate how high the sales decline in the Christmas business will be for domestic retailers. “But it will be substantial.”
After lockdown, one third of the purchases made in stationary retail
Even the trade association – a voluntary interest group for around 3,000 companies – is not satisfied with the Christmas business so far. “The first week since the reopening of the stationary non-food trade has clearly fallen short of the expectations of the domestic trade,” said trade association managing director Rainer Will. “In the past few days, many retailers have posted similar sales as before the hard lockdown, but the hoped-for catch-up effects cannot be said in most segments.” On average, only a third of the purchases in stationary retail were made up, the rest can no longer be made up, the interest representative referred to dealer feedback.
The trade association detects strong differences between the individual sub-sectors. Since the end of the lockdown, the balance sheet for sports and leisure items has been “very good”, and toys, furniture, electrical, decorative and Christmas items have also worked “quite well”, according to the trade association's managing director. Clothing, fashion, shoes and watches As well as jewelry, sales would be “slightly below the previous year's level.” In contrast, things are going splendidly for Internet retailers. “This year we are experiencing the strongest Christmas business ever in online retail,” said Will.
In its first estimate this year, the trade association predicted a 20 percent decline in Christmas spending in December. The forecast will be updated next Wednesday.
