Almost 60 pct of Romanian retailers report increasing sales during pandemic (study)

Approximately 60% of Romanian retailers reported increases in sales during the pandemic, while the number of online orders increased by 57%, according to a study conducted by the digital trading platform VTEX, Agerpres reports.

According to VTEX data released on Tuesday, in order to adapt to the changes brought about by the pandemic, between March 2020 and March 2022, the companies made decisions such as: diversifying their portfolio (62%), increasing the marketing budget (48%) and changing the platform with one more efficient and flexible, which allows rapid changes depending on business needs. On the other hand, only 11% of retailers have reduced their product portfolio and product ranges.

Most retailers in Romania, approximately 60%, reported increasing sales from the beginning of the pandemic until March 2022. In the same period, there was a 57% rise in online orders, and most companies that recorded increases had been on the market for 4 to 7 years. On the other hand, only 52% of young companies (1-3 years) reported increases in sales in the last two years.

At the same time, in addition to the high demand, the number of returns during the pandemic also increased by 33%, while 55% of the interviewed retailers pointed out that the number of returns remained relatively constant.

The specialized study reveals that Romanian retailers faced, on average, two challenges in managing their business. Thus, in most cases, these are external factors, such as increased competition (21% of retailers) or the supply and delivery of products (18%). These are followed by the conversion of store visits into purchases (17%), attracting the right customers (17%) and customer loyalty (14%). At the same time, experienced businesses face many difficulties, such as: shopping cart abandonment, customer loyalty, or pricing policy.

The VTEX study was carried out in collaboration with the market research company MKOR Consulting on a sample of over 200 medium and large retailers.