Danish furniture retailer Jysk opens 8 more stores

Danish furniture retailers Jysk seems to be doing well in the Netherlands. The retailer announced that it plans to open 8 more stores in the Netherlands within the next 6 months. This means that the retailer will then have 21 outlets in the Dutch market. The first new stores to be opened are locating in Zutphen and Drachten (two provincial towns in the East and North of the country).

The store in Drachten will have 1,400 square metres of floor space. The store will offer furniture and furnishing for the bedroom, bathroom, living room and outside seating areas.

Jysk entered the Dutch market just last year and opened its first four outlets in September 2006.

www.jysk.nl

DIY Retailers recovered in 2006 after difficult period

The newest market report of Dutch Market Insights on DIY retailing reports states that in 2006 the sales value of DIY/Hardware retailers finally showed growth again after three years of decline. The overall economic conditions in the Dutch market improved considerably and this had a positive impact on DIY/Hardware retail. Not all DIY/Hardware retailers profited from this turnaround of the market though. The shift in sales from specialist retailers to the big DIY retailers continued as more and more Dutch consumers prefer the option of one stop shopping over the expertise and specialized product ranges of the DIY/Hardware specialist retailers.

The Dutch Market Insights website offers a free executive summary of this report:

DIY Retailing Dutch Market Insights

'AH to go' opens outlet at national airport

Leading grocery retailer Albert Heijn (AH, part of Ahold Group), has opened one of its smaller convenience 'AH to go' grocery stores at Schiphol. These convenience stores are located at high traffic locations such as train stations, subway stations, hospitals, malls et cetera.

This particular outlet not only targets the travellers that visit the airport or Schiphol train station, but also the 26,000 employees of the national airport.

AH to go stores give a lot of space for visitors to move around as these stores need to handle large quantities of shoppers at times during the day. The store stocks some essential grocery products, but its main focus is on fresh food products such as chilled juices, salads, lunch products and ready meals.

source: Distrifood

H&M launches catalogue in the Netherlands

Sligthly older news, but still very interesting for an international audience.....

Earlier this year H&M launched a catalogue with its complete collection. The catalogue consists of no less than 324 pages and consumers can order the catalogue through the H&M website. Consumers that were already receiving the H&M newsletter automatically receive the catalogue through the mail.

The Netherlands is the first country outside Scandinavia were the company has launched this particular service.

A spokesperson for the company explained in Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad, that the catalogue is not a substitute for the online store that was launched in August 2006. These two service are also not intended to replace any stores in the Netherlands. According to the article Germany is one of the next countries were a roll out of the catalogue is considered.

Dutch distant selling reaches EUR3.7 billion

According to the Dutch trade association for distance selling (Thuiswinkel.org), the total distant consumer sales in the Netherlands grew to EUR3.7 billion in 2006. This is an impressive 13.2% improvement over the total for distant selling activities in 2005.

The internet is responsible for the majority of distant sales and had a total value of EUR2.82 million in 2006. This is an 28% improvement over the previous year. According to the association one major factor in the success of online retail is the fact that the Dutch online population keeps on growing. In 2006, 64% of the Dutch population was online, while the year before this was just 61%.

Table Distance Selling Online Monitor 2006
Development online consumer spending in EUR millions per annum:

1998:: € 41,-

1999: € 147,-

2000: € 312,-

2001: € 527,-

2002: € 937,-

2003: € 1.237,-

2004: € 1.678,-

2005: € 2.210,-

2006: € 2.820,-

Source: Thuiswinkel Markt Monitor, Blauw Research/Thuiswinkel.org, 2006-2

Dutch consumer among the most optimistic in Europe

According to the Dutch National Statistics Office (CBS), the Dutch consumer ranks among the most optimistic consumers in Europe. The Finn's, Dutch and Swedes are the top three in terms of consumer confidence. Hungary, Portugal and Cyprus are ranked the lowest out of all European countries.


According to the CBS article the European consumer confidence has risen substantially since the beginning of 2003.

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Dutchmiblog is a forum for everyone interested in following the Dutch retail and consumer markets. The blog will discuss the latest retail and consumer news, profile new retail concepts and highlight interesting consumer research. International traders, retail professionals and marketeers can keep in touch with the latest developments and discuss specific issues with interested professionals from around the world.

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