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From Tobias Winzer
Saxony's retailers did worse business on balance last year. Mail-order and online retail saw the biggest decline - after strong growth during the coronavirus pandemic. This is evident from the sales statistics of the State Statistical Office in Kamenz from Wednesday.
According to the study, sales in the Saxon retail sector will increase by 1.8% year-on-year in 2023. However, this growth is primarily due to inflation. Based on 2015 prices, sales were 4.1% lower than in 2022.
If you break down this data, there were sales losses in almost all sectors. In supermarkets and department stores, sales fell by two percent in real terms. According to the statisticians, this is particularly relevant as this economic group accounts for more than 40 percent of total retail sales. At 11.3 percent in real terms, the losses were most pronounced in mail order and internet retail. Only the leisure retail sector, i.e. sports, books, music and toys, achieved significantly higher sales in 2023 than in the previous year. They rose by 6.6 percent in real terms.
Even the Christmas season did not bring a turnaround. In December 2023, retail sales in current prices were at the same level as the previous year, 2.7% below those of December 2022 in real terms. The biggest losers here were also the internet and mail order business (-12.6% in real terms) and the retail trade in information and communication technology equipment (-5% in real terms).
