Euromonitor published a report on the retail market in BiH for 2016, stating that the company Bingo is “a new market leader,” and that it surpassed Konzum by a number of total sales. The report said that the situation in the retail sector in BiH is more stable than the overall state of the economy.
The retail sector continued to grow last year, thanks to solid economic trends, the growth of visits to BiH and technological progress.
Solid economic trends in the country increased the sale of food products and there was an increase in sales of non-food products due to the growth of visits as well. When we talk about technological progress, we think of the benefit from social networks for advertising and sales via the Internet, which is also on the increase.
In the report was stated that there is a noticeable trend that shops which offer non-food goods are moving from the street into shopping malls. The people on the streets usually pass, walking, going to lunch or hang out, while they usually go shopping in shopping malls, which is why this trend is understandable.
The strongest trend remained unchanged, and that is the consolidation by the major chains, which take over small shops.
“The two chains have separated from the rest of the competition – a regional chain “Konzum” and the local one “Bingo”. These two players have considerable financial support from large institutional investors and banking consortium that have recognized the potential of the retail market in BiH,” as written in the report, adding that Bingo took over the leading position from Konzum last year.
While Bingo, as its main advantage, used low prices and support for local products, Konzum took his advantage from attractive locations in urban areas. But Konzum is losing the battle with Bingo in the food sector so it will probably get more oriented to wholesale, non-food sector and Internet sales.
In the report was stated that the retail sector will continue to grow in the upcoming period, as the economic situation in the country gets better and the purchasing power of the population gets stronger.
(Source: faktor.ba)