BARCELONA—Europe’s cost of living crisis has benefited discount retailers but mid-market names are being squeezed as shoppers watch their spending, executives and analysts at an industry conference said on Tuesday.
Luxury is also continuing to perform well, with hopes that China’s reopening will give fresh impetus as a months-long post-pandemic splurge by Americans starts to end.
But “if you are not really offering the best price, and you are not luxury, then it is difficult,” Thomas Harms, global retail leader at consultancy EY, said on the sidelines of the World Retail Congress in Barcelona.
Although price rises are slowing, retailers globally are still worried inflation will dampen consumer spending and are looking for new ways to attract customers….