The gap between larger and smaller businesses and the concern about their smooth coexistence are intensifying concerns about the future of retail trade, which mainly includes micro and small commercial enterprises, according to the Annual Report of Greek Commerce 2023.
Τhe Greek version of the “multi-crises” that began with the debt crisis followed by the pandemic crisis and the energy crisis has accelerated, and continues to accelerate, structural transformations in the retail industry.
Inflation favors large companies
A key issue in these transformations is dualism in terms of size – which in the annual Greek trade report 2023 appears to be cross-sectoral – while a second issue is dualism in terms of sector, which is a byproduct of the crises. Estimates regarding the evolution of private consumption in 2024, but also in 2025, are not particularly optimistic, reflecting the challenges facing the trade sector.
In particular, inflation increases the revenues of super-markets, while reducing the revenues of other categories of retail trade. This is because consumers, in order to respond to inflationary pressures, proceed to measures to deal with consumption expenditure.
In relation to the course of the remaining branches of trade, the report showed that department stores came under extremely strong pressure in the first years of the financial crisis, as a consequence of the shrinking of households’ disposable income. It is characteristic that the losses, during the period 2012-2013, amounted to -13.4%, while, during the two years of the pandemic, the losses amounted to -12.4% (2018-2019) and -8.9% ( 2019-2020) respectively.
The positive performance, in terms of the first 10 months of 2023, breaks the downward trend of the previous period, but does not seem to support a structural restructuring of the category (yet).
