Worldwide retailers seeking new ways to attract shoppers as spending slows
Posted on in Business News
Europe's cost of living crisis has benefited discount retailers, but mid-market names are being squeezed as shoppers watch their spending, executives and analysts at an industry conference said this week.
Luxury is also continuing to perform well, with hopes that China's reopening will give fresh impetus as a months-long post-pandemic splurge by Americans starts to end.
But "if you are not really offering the best price, and you are not luxury, then it is difficult," Thomas Harms, global retail leader at consultancy EY, said on the sidelines of the World Retail Congress in Barcelona.
Although price rises are slowing, retailers globally are still worried inflation will dampen consumer spending and are looking for new ways to attract customers.
In Europe especially, some have seen sales slow as high energy bills lead customers to buy less or cheaper food and clothes.
The rising cost of goods, declining consumer demand and unpredictable supply chains were the top concerns among retail executives and managers in a survey by Boston Consulting Group published on Tuesday.
And passing higher costs on to shoppers is likely to become harder: 72% of respondents said they expected consumers to be more price-sensitive this year.
Outside the discount space, retailers are getting creative to keep shoppers coming back, with many investing in loyalty programmes, price promotions, and improvements to the online customer experience, the BCG survey found.