CRIF AG has looked into the development of the retail trade over the past 10 years. A total of 32,275 new businesses have been set up in the physical, bricks-and-mortar retail sector, while 26,926 shops have also disappeared over the same period.
This produces a net gain of 5,349 stores, which is equivalent to a growth of 16.6%.
A comparison between new start-ups and liquidations of retail trading stores reveals a negative growth in the years 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2019. In those years, more businesses closed than were set up from new. The following years saw a recovery; in 2017 and 2018, as well as in 2020 to 2023, more shops were once again being opened than closed.
The shops started up most often involve the sale of food products
The shops established most often over the past 10 years have been specialist food retailers (2,547), followed by clothes shops (2,156), other grocery retailers (1,846) and newsagents (1,752).
The most frequent closures involve clothes shops
The largest number of liquidations in this reporting period involved clothing shops (1,776), newsagents (1,595), specialist retail food outlets (1,352), retail traders of flowers and plants (952), computer and software retailers (944) and shops selling sports goods (907).
The number of computer stores declines the most
A comparison between the number of new start-ups and liquidations reveals that the largest decline in the number of sales outlets is reported by shops supplying consumer electronics, computers and software. Bakeries, butchers and clothing shops also record a fall in numbers.
In contrast, however, retail outlets for food products, perfumes and floristry report a growth.
The strongest growth is in online trade
Following a period of continuous growth between 2014 and 2017, online trade showed a slight decline in 2018, then a real surge of growth in the years of the pandemic (2020 and 2021). The number of business start-ups in the online retail trade fell by over 30% in 2022, but recovered again in 2023. Over the period as a whole, online trade reported a net growth of 42.4%.
About the survey process
In this survey, we took account of all those retail trading shops and online shops that were entered into the Commercial Register, and were either newly opened or liquidated in the years from 2014 to 2023.
