Retail sales in the Netherlands increased by more than 4% year-on-year in the third quarter, due to price increases.
Sales volumes for the quarter declined by nearly 3%, the latest data from the Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek (CBS, Statistics Netherlands) showed.
This is also the sixth consecutive quarter when year-on-year sales volumes declined, the CBS added.
Food, Non-Food Retail
In the food segment, year-on-year sales increased by almost 7% during the quarter, with supermarkets and food specialty shops, such as butchers and cheese shops, witnessing higher sales.
Sales volumes in food shops dropped by more than 4% year on year during the quarter, while supermarkets saw a decline of nearly 3%.
In the non-food segment, sales increased by more than 1% compared to the third quarter of 2022, while volumes declined by 4.1%.
With volume declines of 8% and 7%, respectively, clothing and shops selling shoes and leather goods were the most affected in this segment.
Online retail sales increased by 1.4% during the quarter, with multichannel retailers witnessing declines of 2%.
Among shops selling exclusively online, sales grew by over 4% in the third quarter of 2023, the CBS noted.
Other Findings
Elsewhere, retail bankruptcies increased by 60% compared to the third quarter of 2022.
Around 75 retail companies declared bankruptcy during the quarter, up from 47 in the year-ago period.
Of all bankruptcies declared in the third quarter of 2023, 9% were businesses in the retail sector. In the previous quarter, the figure was 7%.
The total number of businesses in the retail sector in the third quarter was 163,000, excluding petrol stations and pharmacies.
The economic outlook among retailers, although still negative, witnessed an improvement.
At the beginning of the fourth quarter, 6% of business owners expected a deterioration in the economic climate, down from 34.4% last year.
