Austria`s physical retail sector continues to shrink

Over the last ten years, Austria’s physical retail sector has been steadily declining, with the last two years seeing a notable acceleration of this decline. Especially in industries such as footwear, electronic products, furniture and apparel are the most severely affected.

The expansion rate of retailers has slowed down, and some operators have even reduced the size of their stores. In addition, a lot of retailers have filed for bankruptcy, which has resulted in the closing of several stores. The amount of sales in physical retail has declined by 1.5% year on average since 2014.

The primary cause of the decline in brick-and-mortar stores is the shift in consumer purchasing habits. The trend of online shopping is growing day by day, and consumers are gradually shifting their spending to catering, travel and leisure activities. In the past ten years, the physical retail stores has shrunk by 18%, while the market share of online shopping has increased significantly.

A study predicts the physical retail stores will continue to decrease by 2.5% to 3% annually in the next few year.