Online retail sales at record high thanks to Temu and Co.
Published: Tuesday, Jun 18th 2024, 16:51
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A new bikini for 14 francs, a cell phone charging cable for 2 francs or a nose hair trimmer for 5 francs: many Swiss people love cheap bargains from China. Last year, Swiss customers spent 2.2 billion francs in foreign online stores - more than ever before.
Compared to 2022, this amount has risen by 10%, according to the market study published by the GfK Institute on Tuesday. According to the study, small parcels from Asia are driving this growth.
However, even if Chinese low-cost stores such as Temu, Shein and Co. have become significantly more important, local consumers still order far more frequently from domestic online stores. According to the survey, total turnover in online retail increased by 3% to 14.4 billion Swiss francs in 2023.
Migros at the top
According to GfK, the entire retail sector, including bricks-and-mortar stores, generated sales of CHF 103 billion in 2023. This is 0.5% more than in the previous year. With an average annual inflation rate of 2.1%, inflation-adjusted (real) sales have therefore fallen slightly.
As always, the two top dogs Migros and Coop are ahead. According to the communiqué, sales at Migros supermarkets rose by 2.5 percent to 13.2 billion Swiss francs. At Coop, the increase amounted to 2.4 percent to 11.8 billion.
In third place is the Migros discounter subsidiary Denner, which grew by 3.9% to CHF 4.0 billion last year. According to the figures, the fourth-highest turnover in the Swiss retail trade was generated by online retailer Digitec-Galaxus, which also belongs to Migros. At 13.1 percent, this was by far the strongest growth.
Aldi and Lidl are missing
The Volg Group, which belongs to the Fenaco Group, also made gains (+1.4% to CHF 1.8 billion), which puts it in 5th place, Ikea (+10.2% to CHF 1.3 billion) in 7th place and Coop Pronto (+3.2% to CHF 988 million) in 9th place.
Landi, which also belongs to Fenaco, still achieved 6th place despite a fall of 3.8 percent to 1.5 billion Swiss francs. Jumbo in 8th place lost 7.1 percent in sales (to 1.1 billion) and the Fust Group, which belongs to the Coop Group, shrank by 1.8 percent to 966 million, putting it in 10th place.
As usual, the two German discounters Aldi and Lidl, which do not disclose their sales to GfK, are missing from the ranking. A year ago, GfK estimated sales of CHF 2.5 to 3.0 billion for Aldi and CHF 2.0 to 2.5 billion for Lidl.
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