For the whole of 2025, retail turnover was 3.6 percent higher than in 2024 and sales volume was 1.6 percent higher.
In the last quarter of 2025, stores in food and luxury goods had 4.2 percent more turnover than a year earlier. Supermarket turnover increased by 4.8 percent. The turnover of specialty food stores such as butcher shops and greengrocers increased by 0.5 percent. At the same time, prices rose. The volume development within the supermarket sector is 1.6 percent, for specialty food stores this is -2.6 percent. The figures are corrected for calendar effects.
Non-food stores recorded 3.2 percent more turnover compared to the fourth quarter of 2024. Sales volume increased by 2.7 percent. The turnover of drugstores is 5.0 percent higher. Stores in recreational articles, shoes and leather goods, and clothing stores also increased turnover. The turnover of stores in other household articles and consumer electronics was lower than a year earlier, respectively -3.0 percent and -0.6 percent.
Retailers generated 5.8 percent more online turnover than in the same period a year earlier. For stores that sell only online, this is even 6.4 percent. Retailers who sell their products both online and in a physical store (multichannelers) recorded 4.9 percent more turnover.
In the fourth quarter of 2025, 62 retailers were declared bankrupt. A year earlier, there were 90. In total, 828 bankruptcies were declared among companies, institutions, and sole proprietorships. In the last quarter of 2024, there were nearly
1,050 bankruptcies, of which approximately 9 percent were retailers.
The entrepreneur confidence of the retail sector has risen and stands at 1.4 at the beginning of the first quarter of 2026. This means the sentiment is positive for the first time in over four years. Entrepreneurs are more positive about the economic climate expectations (+2.2) than about the development of the economic climate (+0.6). This was also the case a quarter earlier.
The personnel indicator, a sentiment indicator about workforce strength within the company, is negative for retail (-1.0). This applies both to the development over the fourth quarter of 2025 (-0.5) and the expectation for the first quarter of 2026 (-1.6). For other sectors, the personnel indicator is positive.
A lot of hard work happens behind the scenes. Good coffee is more than welcome :)