Pandemic influence to retailing in Finland

During the pandemic the overall retail industry had a rather good year. Despite the big turmoil, many parts of the industry managed to grow. On the industry level there was a short dip to 2019 levels, but since then the industry continued to grow.

Like in other countries, some sectors, like fashion/clothing and home, struggled. Fashion had a particularly strong dip during the 2020, which has continued to 2021, as the industry is still significantly below 2019 levels.

Part of the reason why the retail sector as whole in Finland has performed so well is probably due to the very big influence of the two grocery retailing giants. Together Kesko and S Group control around 30-35 % of all retailing in Finland. The big grocers with strong hypermarkets performed particularly well during 2020. The strong growth of foot traffic to the hypermarkets boosted also the non-food sales in the stores. Thus making it even more difficult for the small specialist retailers.