Tuesday, November 9th, 2021
Bicycle dealers particularly affected
Ifo: Bottlenecks in retail until summer
German retailers expect delivery problems well into the summer. Many deliveries arrive in Germany with significant delays. Bicycle dealers are particularly hit by the bottlenecks. The problems should also be reflected in the prices in the Christmas business.
According to a survey, the supply bottlenecks in retail will drag on well into summer 2022. On average, the companies in the industry expect the shortages to continue for another ten months, as the Munich-based Ifo Institute announced in its survey. “The product selection will be limited at Christmas and long after,” said the head of the Ifo surveys, Klaus Wohlrabe.
The bicycle dealers are the most pessimistic: They expect delivery problems for 18 months. For furniture dealers it is 12.5 months. The toy retailers expect around eleven months, the hardware stores 10.3 months. Overall, however, the number of companies with supply problems has decreased somewhat, from 74 to 60 percent. The number of bicycle dealers fell from 100 to 89.6 percent, and of hardware stores from 98.9 to 83.5 percent.
“These are still extremely high numbers,” said Wohlrabe. “Worldwide logistics are out of step. Many deliveries arrive in Germany with significant delays.” The Ifo Institute expects the problems to be reflected in the prices in the Christmas business. A majority of the companies have therefore announced price increases. According to another survey, most German retailers expect negative consequences for their Christmas business due to delivery bottlenecks for microchips and other products.
Around three quarters of the companies surveyed report delivery bottlenecks that could have an impact on sales, as announced by the German Retail Association (HDE). According to this, every fifth retailer assumes that the material shortages are likely to have a “significant” effect on their sales. About 57 percent expect that there will be a “small amount” of losses.
Around 24 percent do not see any negative consequences. “That will not mean that we will get empty shelves,” said HDE managing director Stefan Genth. Individual products such as certain game consoles could be affected. “Yes, there are bottlenecks,” Genth admitted. “There are a few gaps.” But that has happened earlier here and there for particularly popular or new products. “We had that again and again in previous years.”