EUROPE RETAIL MARKET

KEY FINDINGS

1. The scenario of the European retail market is not ever-changing but greatly evolving at a fair pace. Retail supposedly meant fractions or smaller parts, however, in today’s world, companies provide various options, B2C, online channels, and microtrends that the whole logistics connected to one another. 
2. The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted the retail industry in Europe. The pandemic has accelerated the shift towards e-commerce and digital channels, with online sales growing by more than 30% in some countries.  
3. Retailers are increasingly focusing on sustainability and ethical practices, with many companies adopting circular business models and investing in renewable energy sources. 
4. Another trend driving the growth of the retail market in Europe is the increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies. These technologies are being used to improve customer experience, optimize supply chain management, and enhance inventory management. 
5. The consumers are increasingly paying more attention to retailers. They’re looking for lower prices, responding to promotions, and scouting the best deals. With higher prices, customers are more thoughtful about purchases and want the best deals on high-quality products. Naturally, this does strain brand loyalty. Retailers worldwide must shift focus from cultivating brand love to increasing brand value. 
6. The retail industry in Europe is facing several challenges. One of the major challenges is the shift towards e-commerce and digital channels, which has led to a decline in foot traffic and sales at physical stores. This has resulted in many retailers struggling to maintain profitability and stay competitive. 
7. Another challenge facing the retail market in Europe is the increasing competition from online retailers such as Amazon and Alibaba. These companies have been able to leverage their scale and technological capabilities to offer lower prices, faster delivery times, and a wider selection of products than traditional brick-and-mortar retailers. 
8. Retailers are facing increasing pressure to adopt sustainable and ethical practices. Consumers are becoming more aware of the environmental impact of their purchases and are demanding that retailers take steps to reduce their carbon footprint and promote sustainability. 
9. The European retail investment market managed to defy the odds and entice investors, that too at the time of inflation with their retail market model of changing face of retail investment, luxury retailers, Supermarket chains, and attractiveness of retail investment. 

INTRODUCTION

The selling of commodities to the general public in modest amounts for ultimate use or consumption rather than resale is termed to be the retail operational market. Retail is derived from the French word retailer, which means to trim back, chop off, into smaller parts.

Today, the term refers to a wide range of companies who offer a diverse range of items and services to customers, i.e. B2C, via a variety of shop formats and channels, including online. These relative movements reflect major macrotrends in European retailing, as well as retailing on a worldwide scale.

The ongoing pursuit of size and market share either domestically or globally has resulted in higher concentration ratios in the majority, if not all, conventional retail goods industries.

While this is most obvious in the FMCG markets increasing public awareness and merchants use a wide range of business structures, including huge integrated chains of publicly traded or privately held corporations, groupings of small independent retailers or franchisees, and consumers associations.

The European retail channel environment will constantly change and accommodate the ever-changing demands of consumers.

Online growth, for example, is roughly twice in terms of value and volume but also quadruples in percentage terms compared to its nearest competitor, discounters. Industry is continuously under pressure to adapt and stay up with the technological, customer behaviour, and innovative business models that are changing the way people purchase.

Traditional channel planning is becoming outmoded as retail undergoes tremendous change. Instead of considering the influence of each customer journey segment on each element of a commerce ecosystem, this same emphasis must be on bringing the whole customer experiences with each and every consumer

EUROPE RETAIL MARKET DEVELOPMENTS AND INNOVATIONS

EUROPE RETAIL MARKET DYNAMICS

With shifting economic conditions across the European Union, especially retail business has seen numerous changes during the research period. Germany and Russia are renowned shopping destinations in the area, having travelers significant contributions to their individual retail businesses.

Shopping habits have changed and continue to change as a result of changing consumer behaviour in general, not just physical limits imposed by governments on situations that cause crowds to form. E-commerce has had a significant impact on the Europe's retail development.

Travelers are increasing demand for fashion, clothes, and electrical items. Consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of GDP, has long become a leading indication of retail market sustainability. Furthermore, the growing popularity of internet shopping has become a big motivator especially during the COVID-19 crisis.

Aside from that, rising smartphone penetration around the globe is propelling the e-commerce sector. In addition, the Internet of Things (IoT), augmented reality, and other disruptive technologies are transforming the retail business. However, pricing variations exist.

The European retail sector is becoming progressively technologically advanced. Europe is one of the world's major retail technology marketplaces. The area was already spending heavily in retail technology.

The epidemic therefore altered behaviour of customers, making retail technology solutions more important than it has ever been. There are not enough software developers in Europe to meet the increasing demands.

Because of the rapid advancement of cutting-edge technologies such as 5G, IoT, and cloud computing. When it comes to freelancing internationally, European businesses choose suppliers in nearshore regions due to accessibility, linguistic and cultural similarities, and a short time difference.

Software development organizations, which encompass the majority of retail technical support, are frequently sophisticated, time-consuming, and changeable.

This emphasises the need for clear communication between both the client and the programmer. Which is why the majority of European firms who chose to deal with software do so.

EUROPE RETAIL MARKET SEGMENTATION

The Europe Retail Market can be segmented into following categories for further analysis.

By Application 

• Large Scale Retail 
• Medium Scale Retail 
• Commercial Scale Retail 
• Small scale retail (SMEs) 

By Usage Classification Type 

• Food and Beverages 
• Personal and Household 
• Healthcare 
• Apparel 
• Footwear and Accessories 
• Electronics 
• Other Producers 

  

By Operational Distribution Type

• Offline stores- Supermarket, Convenience Stores, Specialty Stores and Dedicated Stores 
• Online Stores 

   

By Regional Classification 

• Germany 
• UK 
• France 
• Italy 
• Rest Of Europe 

RECENT TECHNOLOGICAL TRENDS IN EUROPE RETAIL MARKET

Regarding competing instruments, information technologies are becoming increasingly crucial. They are used to enhance projections as a marketing information instrument, control inventory levels, assist logistics, order electronically from suppliers, support in-store interactions with shoppers, strengthen merchandise handling procedures, and so forth.

Over the previous two decades, the retail business in Central Europe has transformed considerably, and it has become a paradigm of successful transition for emerging economies.

Even during communist rule, state-owned enterprises controlled local marketplaces, and customers had access to a restricted selection of low-quality products and services. The Central European retail market saw a rapid globalisation.

Hypermarkets have become the most popular shopping destinations in the Czech Republic and Hungary, with supermarkets coming in a close second.

There are several newer, inventive methods, including such virtual medication retail locations, that have evolved from Procter Gamble  partnership. Customers can use their smartphones to purchase domestic cleaning, laundry, and cosmetics/toiletries in metro stations.

Products are placed on fence posts, and customers may finalise their purchases by photographing a specific QR code and scanning it using an app.

Like a result, competitiveness grew extremely fierce, resulting in a significant concentration in which the most successful chains controlled each market and other merchants fled, as Carrefour did in the Czech Republic.

When it comes to the future of retailing in Central Europe, the use of new technology will be the most important aspect. Customers are willing to make Internet purchases.

EUROPE RETAIL MARKET NEW TRENDS

To address the rising demand for its label and packaging materials, Avery Dennison Corporation has disclosed information on two significant investments intended to increase its manufacturing capacity and boost factory productivity in Europe.The business announced a €45 million expansion of its French operations in Champ-sur-Drac.

Improvements include a new automated warehouse, a fifth high-speed, cutting-edge hotmelt adhesive coater, and five new logistics buildings totaling more than 8,700 square metres.The business has started a project to reorganise operating flow and add a new emulsion specialty coater at its Luxembourg location that specialises in labels created with acrylic emulsion adhesives.

On-line operation of the coater is anticipated.By freeing up capacity across our European manufacturing network, the firm investments at Champs-sur-Drac and Luxembourg will enable us to satisfy customer demand today and into the future.

The company's already strong network of manufacturing facilities and distribution centres around Europe will be strengthened by the additions at both Luxembourg and Champs-sur-Drac, improving the dependability of service for consumers.

Last but not least, these additions will get us one step closer to completely embracing Industry 4.0 techniques that boost productivity, save operating costs, and free up our staff to work on jobs that are safer and more valuable.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

Once the economy rebounds, it is projected that demand for new goods would increase. Companies are looking forward to investing in next-generation items utilising emerging technologies rather than simply enhancing products using existing state-of-the-art technology, as it is predicted to multiply its benevolence once client demand spikes.

Among the 27 EU nations, Spain, Italy, and Cyprus had the greatest income decreases, owing to protracted shutdown durations as well as the country's economic reliance on tourism. Hungary, where huge income gains have occurred.

M&S has unveiled a new Technology Transformation Programme as part of its five-year transformation plan, which will enable it to become a digital-first organisation and improve customer experience. Its goal is to develop a more agile, quicker, and commercial Technology division that will collaborate with the company to drive growth.

Schwarz Group, a German discount retailer, has come to dominate the European retail sector. It is already the world's second-largest grocery store and fourth-largest retailer overall on a global scale. The main business of Lidl, one of the most international retailers with operations in 31 countries, has fueled Schwarz's expansion.

Schwarz Group is making a considerable development in implementation of a new technology oriented and focused retail environment. This has been to better accommodate the increasing European market.

Schwarz Group is expanding its collaboration with the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) to explore requirements for new retail technology. Schwarz Group, through its retail companies Lidl and Kaufland, anticipates that the research collaboration with DFKI will give a practical drive for digitalization.

Relevant research information will flow even faster into technologies that improve operational procedures and help the immobile retail company in the long run.

The Schwarz Group's environmental engineering supplier delivered preliminary data on-site that might signal the way forward for the retail industry. With the first step in joint collaboration, the co - owners will develop sustainable primary and secondary packaging, with the goal of effectively establishing it on the market.

The PreZero trademark Out Nature’s unique silphia paper, made from the fibres of the quickly renewable and bee-friendly silphia species, would set the foundation for it though. P&G's Gillette yet Always branding was shown on silphia material.

Adidas, a worldwide sports apparel manufacturer, runs its big data platform on AWS Data Lakes and moved its ecommerce store from a proprietary solution to AWS. adidas can now easily develop scalable mobile applications and integrate and analyse consumer data in order to make data-driven decisions.

Ikea has been part of the global scale of operation in the current European market. It has been focusing on development of the latest programmable requirements which are under the real time usage characteristics.

IKEA has released a new augmented reality (AR) interface that lets customers test IKEA inventory in real experience using Apple iOS 11's ARK it capabilities. The free iPhone and iPad software, dubbed IKEA Place, contains realistically drawn, true-to-scale 3D items.

With 98.99 percent accuracy, the app automatically adjusts products based on room size. The programme examines the entire vastness of a space using iPhone or iPad cameras to see a product within a location. When making their selections, consumers may search an online archive of over 2,000 IKEA goods.

After purchasing a particular product, consumers must aim the device to the desired location in a room, then drag and drop the object into place. IKEA Place may also keep track of each user's preferred goods.

Ikea has also been named the top cross-border retailer in Europe by Cross-Border Commerce (CBCommerce), a platform that promotes cross-border e-commerce in Europe.

COMPANIES PROFILED

• Schwarz
• Aldi
• Carrefour
• Ikea
• Amazon
• Edeka
• Sainsbury
• Mercadona
• Otto Group
• Casino
• Inditex
• Marks and Spencer
• H&M
• Dacia
• Metro AG
• Tesco PLC
• Auchan Holdings SA

THIS REPORT WILL ANSWER FOLLOWING QUESTIONS 

1. What is the condition of current market of European retail right now and how will it change in the next 5-6 years? 
2. What are the market opportunities, risks, and overall outlook of the European Retail Market? 
3. How technological advancements will change the market scenarios? 
4. How government policies and regulations will affect the market scenarios over the years? 
5. How did the buying behavior of consumers across the European countries change post-pandemic? 
6. Why the sudden market shift towards online shopping? How scalable are traditional retail market scenarios? 
7. How is consumers’ purchasing behavior based on environmentally aware decisions changing the retailers to adopt sustainable methods? 
8. How did the European retail market get affected by the Russia-Ukraine war? 
9. What stir did inflation cause in the European retail market? 
10. How are retailers and hypermarkets improving their infrastructure so that they can compete and be scalable along with e-commerce?