The Coronavirus pandemic is expected to cost European retails sales outlets as much as $4bn as a result of disruption in services due to lockdown measures by governments to prevent spread of the deadly disease.
According to data gathered by LearnBonds, Germany will suffer the most with over $913m lost in retail sales, while France and the UK are set to lose over $860m.
Between just two weekends, from March 14th to March 21st, footfall in German shopping streets fell drastically in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak across the federation.
The number of people entering stores in Germany’s three busiest shopping streets – the Zeil in Frankfurt, Georgstraße in Hannover and Königstraße in Stuttgart- plunged between five and seven times over that period, revealed the Statista data.
On top of this, European shoppers substantially reduced the amount of money they spent in stores. Last month, 49 per cent of French consumers said they cut their daily spending in shops because of the coronavirus pandemic, according to Statista data and BCG consumer survey.
The country is expected to lose over $558m in retail sales, the second-largest financial hit across European retail.
Statistics show 32 per cent of Britons also drastically reduced the amount of money they spent on groceries. February’s bad weather kept UK’s shoppers at home, which caused a fall in retail sales even before the coronavirus outbreak.
