Retailers do well in the first test of the year

The advance sales on Easter weekend showed the improvement in the intention of the Brazilian consumption. With high projections that rotate between 3.2% and 5.4% in comparison with last year, the date was the first test of the trade sales this year, and the result seems to have pleased retailers of all sizes.
"Easter is the mood of retailers for the coming holidays. When Easter is bad, many [retailers] have lowered the expectation for mother's day and Valentine, and so on, "explains the expert in InTrend retail business management, Carolina Dantas.
Accordingly, the increase in sales was widespread, what confirms the sense of improvement in consumption as a whole. "We did a survey with our customers, and the supermarkets as the emporiums have sold more. The chocolaterias also had satisfactory result ", celebrates.
According to the data of the Boa Vista SCPC this year Easter trade advanced 3.2%, and if hit on an increase of 2.2% in 2017, about 2016. With the two consecutive high the industry comes close to recover lost sales in 2016, 2015, when trade to date shrank 5.8 percent. "With the prospect of improving the economy, reducing inflation and interest rates, and labour market recovery, the trade should continue in uptrend. The prospect is that the forthcoming commemorative dates confirm this trend ", say economists da Boa Vista, in a report.
Even more optimistic and SPC Serasa Experian Brazil point 5.4% increase in sales between March 26 and April 1, the best result for Easter in four years.
At the end of Easter week there was an increase of 6.5% in sales throughout the country and the President of the SPC Brazil, Roque Junior Pellizzaro, warns that there is still caution.
"As they were years of retraction in consumption, this high is still on a very small base. But it's still a consistent signal that the Brazilians are coming back to consumers, "he says.
In line with Carolina, InTrend argument, Pellizzaro Jr. also believes that the result of Easter can balisar future decisions of entrepreneurs of the trade. "Easter can function as a preview not only for mother's day, as to the performance of commercial activity along 2018. Gradually, consumers feel more confident to return to consume and is a boost for retailers start to give solid signs of recovery ", he argues.
This year, according to a survey by the SPC Brazil, the most popular products were the traditional eggs (61%), chocolates (51%) and chocolate bars (48%). "So the retailer has invested in formats and different prices, to suit all types of consumer, managed to win more customers," says Carolina.
With the formation of a "stock more fluid", as says the InTrend analyst, it is possible that the retailer can even work with the remaining products. "If you fill the Easter egg and not sell, will have to do. If left over chocolates and chocolate bars, it continues in gondolas with the appropriate price. I believe that many retailers have bet it "comments.
Credit or debit card?
The progress seen in sales was also felt by the credit protection service (SPC Brazil) and the National Confederation of Merchants Leaders (CNDL). Second, the entities queries for splitted sales the week before Easter grew 3.24% in comparison with the same period last year. "It is the high more expressive since 2014, (+2.55%). In the following years, sales dropped 4.93% in 2015 and 2016 16.81%. Last year, the high was only 0.93% ", details Pellizzaro Jr.