With strong discounts and unique opportunities, the commercial world continues to welcome consumers to all stores in the country for their purchases. Winter discounts that started on Monday, January 13th, will run until Friday, February 28, while the stores will be optionally open on Sunday, January 26th, with a proposed opening hours from 11:00 am. Until 18:00 pm

As he has pointed out to RES-EIA President Vassilis Korkidis, “everything shows that winter discounts, despite the financial fatigue of the holidays, will meet the expectations of traders and consumers and the purchasing traffic will move to better levels than last year, with the aim of Turnover in retail in the two -month period, January – February 2025, to exceed € 6 billion of last year’s two -month period. ” According to him, the target of sales growth is possible mainly due to increases of 6.4% in private sector wages and a 9% unemployment reduction in another indication that the pressures received by the family budgets in the past begins to firmly weaken. As a positive situation, it also mentions a monthly drop of -0.2% of food and drink prices recorded in our country according to Eurostat, as well as on average -0.94% decrease in product prices in supermarkets. In December according to IELKA.

At the same time, there are high expectations of the commercial world from winter discounts. As Makis Savvidis, Vice President of Athens (ESA) and Vice-President of the Hellenic E-Commerce Association (GRECA) has underlined in RES-EIA, and the prices offered specifically in the clothing/footwear sector will exceed each of the products. expectancy. According to Mr. Savvidis, this year the weather with high temperatures for the period was not an ally of business. In this context, traders are preparing for great discounts in order to get rid of great discounts as some big players and department stores may have written high performance during the holidays but there is no enthusiasm in the whole market and the turnover seems to be in value in relation to respect to last year.

In the meantime, in terms of market control, the Ministry of Development is noted, at every opportunity, that strict controls are continuous throughout the market, and new digital tools are used.

The trade associations, in their announcements, urge the consumer to exploit the high rates of discounts in all categories of species, the high quality and a very wide range of products while reminding professionals that in every price announcement it must be honored. The earlier value is explicitly indicated (often referred to as a reference value) on the basis of which the discount applies. The earlier price is the lowest price applied by the trader to each product during the 30 days prior to the first discount on January 13.

Specifically for regular discounts, according to the Code of Conduct (YA 66877/30-8-2024) the price reduction may be as follows, always provided the earlier price as set out above:

-Posotion (%), eg “20% discount”.

-Related amount, eg “10 euro discount”.

-Release of a new (lower) price along with the earlier (highest) price (higher) applied, eg “now 50 euros, 100 euros”. The earlier price may also appear deleted, eg “50 euros 100 euros”.

In addition, it is reiterated that the earlier price means the lowest price applied by the trader during the 30 -day period prior to the application of the price reduction. When the product is on the market for less than 30 days, the earlier price means the lowest price in the time the product is on the market. If the price is gradually reduced during the 60 days prior to the application of the price reduction, the earlier value means the value in force prior to the application of the first by successive price reductions. The 60 -day rule is the one used “inside” discounts. However, caution is needed: To use this prior value before the discounts, not a single price increase within 60 days, even on reduced prices, as this automatically negates the earlier price before discounts.

The trade associations are seeking the attention of the commercial world, as according to article 21 of Law 4177/2013, those who violate the law shall be imposed a fine of 1% of the annual turnover and not less than EUR 10,000. If the discounts prove to be inaccurate or misleading, a fine of 2% of the annual turnover is imposed and not less than EUR 20,000.

Enhanced turnover in supermarkets

With a growth of 3.6% and total sales of 14.8 billion euros is estimated to be closed in 2024 for supermarkets (organized food retail) according to Nielseniq’s measurement data with inflationary pressures and increased demand being almost the Exclusive sector development lever.

Looking at large over-theses, as Nielseniq defines them, the increase in food and drinks at 4.7%is primarily attributed to increased demand, with price change also positively contributing to this trend. .

The most restrained positive trend (+1.4%) of the categories related to personal care & hygiene, as a whole, is solely due to increased demand, while household care categories showed a decrease in their turnover compared to 2023 , as their increased demand (2.6%) was not capable of revealing their strong deflationary trend (-3.8%).

Regarding the rising trend of online sales for food retailing, according to Nielseniq’s online index index (cumulative sales of EU Sklavenitis, AB Vassilopoulos, Massoutis and ANEDIK/Cretan) online turnover amounted to 278 million euros 2024, presenting a double -digit growth rate, at +21%, five times higher than the corresponding growth rate of the natural stores of participating retailers in the index. However, although ever increasing, the contribution of online volumes to total turnover remains low, reaching 3.1% last year.

At the same time, supermarket executives are ‘seeing’ volume stabilization and increasing sales value for the first half of 2025, according to IELKA’s FMCG (FMCG consumer goods) survey. The survey was conducted in November-December 2024 using a structured questionnaire and a sample of 150 senior and top business executives (supermarket retailers and FMCG suppliers) by the Directorate-General and Marketing Departments. Markets, Finance, Informatics etc.

More specifically, industry executives expect sales value in the first half of 2025 (+0.8%) compared to 2024 and stabilization of sales volume in the first half of 2025 (+0.1%) in relation to with the equivalent of 2024. They also “see” maintaining the level of economic climate at positive levels and stabilizing prices. Compared to the sales expectations of the industry, the survey records a majority percentage of respondents 48% who consider the value of industry sales to increase the next half, with a small percentage (23%) of respondents considering a decrease in decrease . Average executives involved in the survey estimates that a 0.8% increase in sales will be recorded in the first half of 2025 compared to the same six months of 2024. Also, executives estimate sales volume (+0.1%) in relation to The corresponding period of 2024. Proceedings, according to the survey, records a prediction of reduction in industry growth in 2025 at a lower rate.

The negative tendency recorded in assessing the evolution of the country’s financial situation in 2022-23 is maintained in this measure. Specifically, at the end of 2024 only 23% considered the financial situation improved and the majority of 41% worse, the estimates of executives are about the same level for the last two years. The economic climate has a more downward trend, which is due to the combination of executives’ estimates (sales, prices, financial conditions). Specifically, the combination of stable sales and non -increase prices leads to this effect. The index is recorded at 0.11, reduced compared to the previous measurement and marginally positive.

Among the issues examined are the assessment of the present financial situation of businesses. The majority of businesses at 51% expect a better financial result in its profitability in 2023, while 28% expect a worse financial result. The rest of the sample companies, either do not yet have a clear picture or expect a change. Proceedings of 2 out of 3 companies in the retail industry and the food industry expect some profitability in 2024, while just more than 1 in 12 expect losses.