According to De Jong, the overall picture does not change much (“ripples”) and the decline in sales volume is compensated by spending more money on services. ‘On balance, consumers are still spending more money than they did a year ago.’
Jan Meerman of the trade association InRetail is not “unhappy” with the figures. Jan Meerman is a little surprised that, according to these figures, consumers are still not holding their purse strings. ‘These are uncertain times, the consumer reads and hears every day that prudence is advised when it comes to spending money. But we see that shopping is in the spotlight and consumers are spending a lot of money. A little less in volume, but in terms of price, and we are very happy with that.’
Less rosy
Dutch statistics also report increased confidence in the sector, although De Jong notes that other figures, such as NEVI’s on producer confidence in the sector, are “less rosy”. ‘CBS data for December shows a slight increase, the second in a row. We see the same trend in Germany, where confidence is also slightly improving. Historically, the increase is higher than the average, entrepreneurs are more optimistic about the expected business.’
Image consistent
According to De Jong, ‘a coherent picture is emerging of an economy which is not experiencing strong growth, but which is certainly not in a deep recession’. Meanwhile, the wage structure is changing dramatically: Minimum wages will increase by 10 percent in January, AOW will increase and all types of related benefits will increase. “The whole salary structure will go up, purchasing power will go up, people will notice at the end of the moon that they’re getting more money in their account.”
The numbers
In the so-called non-food companies, the average turnover grew by 4.7 percent. Sales volume showed a decline of 3%. Clothing stores, leisure stores, drugstores, shoe and leather goods stores, and home improvement stores all saw sales increase. Retail sales of consumer electronics and household appliances and furniture and home accessories stores were down.
Revenue in grocery stores increased by more than 8% on average. Here, too, fewer products were purchased on average. Sales volume decreased by more than 4%. Turnover in supermarkets increased by 9.5%. Specialty stores saw their turnover decrease by an average of 0.6%. Statistics from the Netherlands also reported that online sales in stores increased by 3.8%. Stores that sell both physically and online in particular have shown strong growth in turnover. The turnover of these stores grew by 9.6%. Online stores that only sell online recorded a 0.6% drop in turnover.