Published
According to credit and debit card transactions, Swiss customers made fewer online purchases during this 1st quarter of 2022. The trend is towards a return to normal following the Covid.
Only online purchases in the food sector continued to grow.
Raisa Durandi
The Swiss are once once more shopping less online. According to the latest monitoring of credit and debit card transactions by the Swiss Retail Federation, purchases fell in almost all sectors in the first quarter of 2022. A phenomenon that follows the global trend, underlines the umbrella of retail businesses in Switzerland in a press release on Monday.
This slowdown in online commerce, boosted during the coronavirus epidemic, represents a return to pre-Covid levels. “Online commerce has been artificially fueled by state interventions during the pandemic, but things are tending to return to normal,” explains Dagmar T. Jenni, director of Swiss Retail. “Because of the sometimes severe measures adopted in other economic branches, consumers have partially changed their habits to the benefit of stores. This derived consumption is now slowly coming out of the retail trade figures”, she specifies, while recalling that “the general economic situation has cooled”.
The field of food continues to grow
According to the federation, only the online food trade is still doing well and continues to develop, contrary to the general trend in other sectors. “This points to a change in buyer behavior in the medium term,” comments Swiss Retail. “Through their online ordering experiences during the pandemic, customers may have taken a liking to the possibility of having shelf-stable and rather heavy food delivered to them.”
In contrast, online purchases fell by a third in the fashion segment. Which indicates that the Swiss need to try on clothes and shoes in stores, analyzes the umbrella.
Revenue will decline in 2022
Swiss Retail further explains that the economic situation remains very uncertain and volatile worldwide. “The rise in energy prices, in particular, has continued to increase production costs in recent weeks and no return to normal is in sight for the moment”, underlines the federation. In addition, the effects of Covid restrictions, container shortages, lack of ships and delays in international trade will weigh heavily on retail in 2022. that the record turnover of 2021 in Switzerland can hardly be maintained this year”, concludes the federation.
(cht)