The Italian large-scale retail trade, including online sales, saw a 1.8% annual growth in turnover to €135.1 billion in 2024, up 1.9% in value and 1.5% in volume, according to latest data from NIQ.
Drug stores led growth at 8.8%, followed by supermarkets (2.6%), discount stores (2.3%), and superstores (2.1%). Hypermarkets (-1.9%) and self-service stores (-2.4%) bucked the trend, showing declines.
Packaged consumer goods saw a 2% value increase, with groceries at 1.9%, fresh produce at 1.8%, and non-food at 0.7%. Promotional sales increased to 24.3% of total sales in 2024 (up from 23.4% in 2023), reaching 26.2% in December.
In December alone, the large-scale retail trade generated €14.4 billion in revenue, with drug stores leading with a 5.1% increase, followed by discount stores (1.6%), superstores (1.3%), and supermarkets (0.3%). Self-service stores and larger hypermarkets experienced declines.
Consumer Trends
Packaged goods inflation stood at 0.4% in December, continuing the downward trend from 2023's average of 11.3%. While Italians generally focused on saving throughout the year, holiday spending in December resulted in slightly higher price variations than inflation (0.6% vs. 0.4%).
Private-label products held a 21.6% share in hypermarkets, supermarkets, and self-service stores, and 30% across all channels, including discount stores.
In December 2024, the Italian shopping cart declined in both value (-0.5%) and volume (-1.1%) compared to the same period in 2023.
Fish and meat saw slight value increases (0.9% and 0.8% respectively), but fish volumes decreased (-2.5%), while meat volumes remained flat. Beverages experienced declines in both value and volume (both -4.8% and -4.7% respectively).
Self-service stores experienced the largest declines in this period, with volume dropping by 5.6% and value by 4.9%. Drug specialists were the only channel to see growth, with a 2% increase in volume and a 1.1% increase in value.
Other Findings
While superstores did not see an increase in volume, their value grew by 0.9%. Other channels experiencing growth in turnover were discount stores (2.1%) and supermarkets (0.4%).
Italians' grocery spending shows a preference for fresh produce, with fruit and vegetables leading in value growth at 1.7%, followed by meat and poultry at 1.2%, and cheese at 1.1%.
Conversely, seafood and deli items saw declines, with fishmongers experiencing the largest drop at -5.8% and delicatessens at -3.9%. The overall fresh food category remained stable.
