Technical explanation

This news release includes year-on-year data and developments. The status of figures referring to the last four months under review and related periods is provisional.

Branches

The retail sector can be subdivided into four main categories: food, drinks and tobacco shops (with a share of 37 percent in 2014), non-food shops (48 percent), retail trade through non-traditional distribution channels (7 percent) en petrol stations (8 percent).

Price developments

Data on price developments are based consumer price index figures, but these figures are not available by branch. Therefore, prices are estimated on the basis of price developments for a selection of articles most common for that particular branch. Price developments in a branch are also affected by articles also sold in other branches. Price developments for branch-unrelated articles are not taken into account.

Mail-order firms and online shops

Figures for retail trade through mail-order firms and internet shops refer to articles sold to consumers by mail-order firms and/or internet shops. These figures do not provide an overall picture of retail trade over the internet. Internet sales realised in traditional shops are not included in retail trade through mail-order firms and online shops, but are included in branches related to the main activities of these shops. If a clothing shop, for example, mainly sells clothes in the traditional manner, but also generates turnover by selling over the internet, turnover is attributed to the branch clothing shops.

Shopping-day pattern

News release retail  trade 15 April 2015

If turnover developments are evaluated, differences in the shopping-day pattern must also be taken into account, but since the shopping-day pattern for February 2015 was exactly the same as for February 2014, it has no effect on turnover results. The figures presented in the table in this news release have not been adjusted for differences in the shopping-day pattern.