Next Monday, December 7th, a real storm can be expected in Austria's retail trade.
More than half of Austrians (53 percent) hadn't done their planned Christmas shopping at the beginning of this week. This is shown by the representative survey that the Austrian Gallup Institute carried out together with the Institute for Trade & Marketing at the Vienna University of Economics and Business from November 25th to 29th.
Of those who haven't done their Christmas shopping yet, every second person is waiting for the shops to reopen on Monday, and a rush in the shopping centers is to be expected. In contrast, four out of ten respondents in this group buy online, primarily from Amazon.
Gallup boss Michael Nitsche: “Domestic online platforms only play a subordinate role in online trade. The lockdown therefore acts as a huge advertising campaign for Amazon and redirects a considerable part of the available budget to it. The losers are retailers and the Austrian financial administration, the lower tax revenues “.
Despite convenient shopping opportunities on the Internet, the need to do Christmas shopping in person in a store is still strong. “Due to the special situation, many people have decided this year to buy more online. Only less than 20 percent of online buyers tried to buy exclusively from Austrian providers,” says Anton Salesny, Institute for Trade & Marketing at the Vienna University of Economics and Business.
And further: “Nonetheless, the stationary retail trade is still highly relevant for consumers this year when it comes to buying Christmas gifts. The good news for small retailers is that many consumers are planning to do their Christmas shopping in small local shops.”
According to the survey, the run on stores expected from Monday is primarily expected in shopping centers (48 percent), drug stores and perfumeries (44 percent) as well as in specialist shops, i.e. hardware stores, toys and electronics, books and clothing (42 percent). Small local stores (39 percent) will benefit more than department stores (32 percent).
Since they were open during the lockdown, supermarkets (26 percent) are naturally at the bottom of the list. During the survey, a small part of the population had not given up hope of being able to buy one or the other present at Christmas markets (16 percent). It remains to be seen how the population will react to the restrictions on the opening of trade that have now been announced.
