Retail and Wholesale Trade

The 12th edition of the “E-Commerce-Study Austria 2021” analyses the shopping behaviour of the Austrian population regarding classic mail-order business as well as internet retail-trade. The main indicators are the number of Austrians, who buy via distance selling, expenditures and the development over time. Furthermore, the focus in 2021 is on the implications of the Corona-Pandemic on the customers in distance selling.

Structural change in the stationary retail sector has left clear traces in recent years: The number of retail stores has declined, and concentration trends have increased. The sector mix has changed: Certain sectors are losing significant commercial space (e.g. clothing retail), while other sectors such as food and drugstore retail are increasing their share slightly (in the city center). Particularly retail-related providers (especially restaurants and cafés) are becoming more important in the commercial space mix.

The Corona pandemic is leading to an intensification of many developments that have been underway for years. These include, first and foremost, the massive online shift and the intensifying competition. The study uses the institute's structural database to show the changes that have occurred in the number of stores, commercial spaces and concentration trends in stationary retail in Austria.

Project duration: 03/2021 - 06/2021

Client: WKO - Austrian Federal Economic Chamber

Contact: Wolfgang Ziniel

The 11^th edition of the “E-Commerce-Report Austria 2020” analyses the shopping behaviour of the Austrian population regarding classic mail-order business as well as internet retail-trade. The main indicators are the number of Austrians, who buy via distance selling, expenditures and the development over time. Furthermore, the focus in 2020 is on the development of smartphone-shopping. Voice-Commerce serves a new topic in the study.

Austrian Institute for SME Research results of the business cycle survey on retail trade 2018 (available only in German)

The analysis of the economic situation in the Austrian retail sector carried out on behalf of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber - Retail Commerce shows a deterioration in earnings and an improvement in the financial situation for the current financial year 2017/18.

The structural analysis of stationary retail trade in Austria carried out annually on behalf of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber - Division Commerce shows a provisional halt to structural change for the analysis year 2018. Both the number of shops and the number of sales areas increased (slightly) in 2018 for the first time since 2012. The concentration is not intensifying any further.

Austrian Institute for SME Research results of the business cycle survey on retail trade 2018 (available only in German)

The dynamic development in online retailing has continued in recent years. More and more consumers shop via the Internet and the number of online shops from Austrian retailers increases constantly. The Austrian Institute for SME Research carried out the study “Online Retailing 2018” on behalf of the division Commerce of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber and the Federal Ministry for Digital and Economic Affairs. The study results for the analysis 2017 are based on extensive primary surveys of both the demand side (consumer)and the supply side (retail trade) as well as on special analyses of data of the Austrian Institute for SME Research, Statistics Austria and Eurostat. 

The trade calculator has been developed as a free online tool for Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in trade, that allows companies to anonymously analyze their own annual financial statements simply and clearly and compare it with industry averages for SMEs. The evaluations can be used for internal company analyses, which are becoming increasingly important for corporate controlling. In addition, the results of the trade calculator can be used for the preparation for bank meetings. Since banks also work with current industry averages, a conscientious examination is indispensable in advance. The data source for the online tool is the balance sheet database of the Austrian Institute for SME Research, which contains 18,000 anonymized annual financial statements of retail companies (p.a.).

The publication “The Austrian Retail Trade – Facts, Figures, Analyses” provides the most recent and comprehensive data on trade in Austria and also by retail trade sectors (including selected retail trade industries), wholesale trade and the automobile sector. The compact reference guide in A-5 format is structured as follows: (1) structure of the retail sector, (2) the retail sector as employer, (3) output of the retail sector and (4) the economic situation in the retail sector. In addition, a special topic is dealt with annually (e.g. The retail sector under the influence of Covid-19 Business Demography in the retail sector (2018)).  The reports are based on statistical data of well-known institutions (Statistik Austria, Eurostat, etc) as well as recent research results, database analyses and own calculations of the Austrian Institute for SME Research.

The Austrian Entrepreneurial Index (AEI) combines different aspects of self-employment and measures the satisfaction of entrepreneurs in an overall index consisting of 6 sub-indices with 35 sub-areas.

First surveyed in a large-scale company survey in 2015, the satisfaction of around 480 retailers can be measured over time for the first time on the basis of the new survey in 2017.