C 152/4
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
6.4.2022
5.2.
According to a recent report by the McKinsey Global Institute (4), COVID-19 and automation combined are putting more than 5 million jobs at risk in retail and wholesale.
This could affect the many women and young people employed.
As well as stabilising the economy, the EU and Member States need to invest in the skill sets of these workers, e.g. through improved vocational and educational training, individual learning accounts and reskilling.
Targeted up-skilling would enable the sector to retain a larger portion of its workforce by training them to use digital technologies, while re-skilling may enable others to access job opportunities in other sectors.
5.3.
EU employment and skills support measures therefore need to be redesigned to allow easy and rapid access to funding for the restructuring of this sector and to cope with the changing skills needs driven by the acceleration of market changes caused by COVID-19.
Recovery plans must be used to increase skills of both retail and wholesale workers in the same way as for public sector workers.
6.
Industrial strategy — retail ecosystem 6.1.
The updated Industrial Strategy recently presented by the EC (5) presents a new focus on essential ecosystems, including retail and agri-food.
Retailers and wholesalers play a vital role in the European economy and the functioning of numerous other eco-systems such as the logistics sector.
The digital and green transitions must help drive post-COVID-19 recovery, and retailers and wholesalers need to be recognised as an important part of numerous ecosystems, for example, online commerce and logistics.
Logistics is an indispensable industrial element for online commerce, symbiotic as neither of the two subsystems can carry out its business without the contribution of the other.
For this reason it is in the general interest that the logistics sector grows in compliance with workers, consumers and environment.
6.2.
The EC recognised that the retail and wholesale eco-system is one of the hardest-hit sectors and comes second in terms of investment support needs.
Retailers and wholesalers operate with high turnover, high fixed costs and low margins (1-3 %), meaning that they are particularly vulnerable to liquidity shortages.
In May 2020, the estimated losses linked to the first wave of the pandemic reached 16-20 % of annual turnover (EUR 250-320 billion) in non-food retail.
A large number of businesses in the retail and wholesale eco-system have suffered drastically from government restrictions on them directly or indirectly e.g. as a result of their customers being shut down or subject to other mobility restrictions.
Those with online operations have been able to mitigate some of the losses, but only in a very limited way.
Online sales have grown significantly and are expected to continue to grow as consumers gain experience with buying online.
6.3.
The eco-systems approach provides an appropriate framework reflecting both the complex interlinkages among sectors and businesses in the Single Market in given value chains, as well as the need to support them in successfully embracing the digital and sustainability transition and contributing to the recovery strategy.
With private consumption constituting over 50 % of EU GDP, retailers and wholesalers ensure manufacturers’ access to consumer and professional markets; customers can buy what they need, and this makes up a continuous and vital supply chain.
7.
Role of retail in keeping town centres and rural communities alive 7.1.
Retailers have built up trust with European consumers over many years and provide them with high quality products at competitive prices, constantly looking to create and pass on new efficiencies to help consumers’ purchasing power.
Retailers create environmentally-friendly products that help sustainable consumption, but more is needed.
7.2.
Retail shops are also central to keeping town centres and rural communities alive.
This also shows how relevant traditional brick-and-mortar shops are and will be for society.
Retailers can serve as a post office, bank and pharmacy and help local communities remain vibrant.
Empty retail space in shopping streets inexorably condemns towns to a slow decline into vandalism and crime, and a village shop can make the difference between a living rural community and one that loses its population.
7.3.
European retailers need to be able to increase and accelerate their investment in automation, consumer interface and AI in order to remain competitive.
Support for such investment and for expanding online sales, and particularly help for SME retailers and small town-centre operations to go online, would have a transformative effect both on their local communities and on the survival and resilience of many retail companies facing intense — and increasingly global — competition.
(4) (5)
The future of work in Europe (mckinsey.com).
COM(2020) 102 final; communication-industrial-strategy-update-2020_en.pdf (europa.eu).