After years of major constraints on the smooth running of retail businesses in Portugal, the sector is showing signs that it is in good shape.
According to Eurostat data, unlike most European Union countries, retail in Portugal grew by 1.1% in September compared to the same period last year. This is confirmed by the report REDUNIQ Insights for the month of November, which tells us that:
- retail turnover grew by 2.3% as a result, among other things, of the 5.3% increase in the number of consumers that Black Friday attracted;
- Among the categories that grew the most were Household Appliances & Technology (+6.7% compared to November 2022), Car Accessories (+3.7%) and Fashion (+1.8%).
New retail trends in Portugal for 2024
This growth, which has remained relatively stable over the last two years, has been greatly helped by the innovation of national retail and the companies linked to it, especially in the areas of customer service and payments, but there are more cards up our sleeves for 2024.
Let's take a look at this year's retail trends.
Checkout automation
The personalisation of the purchasing journey and the speed brought by automation at checkout, which we can already find in the largest retail companies in Portugal, will be further developed throughout 2024.
The trend is for more and more retail businesses, apart from food and drink, to invest in services that allow customers to choose and pay for products immediately using an app on their smartphone, and to leave the shop without having to go through a physical checkout.
This will ultimately result in greater customer convenience, as queues and waiting times will be significantly reduced.
Mandatory electronic payments
The growing use of electronic means of payment by Portuguese consumers and, in particular, the contactlessThis led the Bank of Portugal (BdP), the entity responsible for the Portuguese financial system, to create a revolutionary guide for the payments world, which it called "National Strategy for Retail Payments 2025".
Within this strategy, the most important changes in electronic payments in Portugal in 2024 relate to the promotion of tap-to-pay and similar payment solutions that allow retailers to use a smartphone to make payments. accept contactless payments, QR Code payments e NFC and the obligation for companies to accept at least one electronic means of payment.
This change necessarily means that retailers in Portugal have to offer their customers payment methods in line with new consumer habits.
In order to help retailers with this task, REDUNIQ offers them three TPA solutions which will not only boost sales, but also reduce friction at the time of payment:
- REDUNIQ Easy: designed for seasonal businesses or those with low sales volumes, with the REDUNIQ Easy has access to a payment terminal where the great advantage is having a monthly fee according to the monthly turnover of your business. What's more, sThis solution allows businesses to accept "traditional" payments with credit and debit cards (Visa and Mastercard brands) via PIN, contactless and MB WAY;
- REDUNIQ Smart: o TPA Android REDUNIQ Smart makes business more mobile and digital, allowing you to accept payments on the same terminal. contactless payments with card, chip, MB WAY, Google Pay and Apple Pay and manage your entire business.
- REDUNIQ SoftIn a clear revolutionary sign that anticipates Banco de Portugal's idea of boosting tap-to-pay solutions, the innovative REDUNIQ SoftThis is an Android terminal which, in practice, is an App that can be downloaded to the retailer's smartphone and which allows them, regardless of the time and place where they are, to receive payments on their smartphone via NFC, QR Code and contactless quickly and easily.
Payment instalments for purchases
Despite payment instalments for purchases While in Brazil and the United States the process is still in its early stages, it is believed that by 2024 more and more consumers will be opting for this form of payment.
Those who decided not to wait until next year were UNICRE in partnership with Parcela Jáallows retailers connected to the REDUNIQ network to offer their customers the possibility of pay for your purchases in instalments in their establishments via the Android automatic payment terminal REDUNIQ Smart.
When paying, the customer only has to:
- choose the option to pay for the purchase in between 2 and 6 monthly instalments (first instalment charged at the time), the minimum instalment being €20
- insert the citizen's card in the TPA
- swipe the card you hold
- enter your mobile phone number
- enter the code you will receive by SMS
Once approved, the retailer will receive daily payment of the full amount of the operation into their bank account and can, if they wish, consult all Parcela Já operations with UNICRE at REDUNIQ Customer Area.
Dark Stores
From the most complex years for retailers, a shop concept has emerged that solves the constraints of large volumes of orders: the dark stores.
In practice, a dark shop is a shop with sufficient infrastructure to house products and equipment and begin the process of sorting, packaging and labelling orders, thus responding to requests and shortening the response time of physical shops to customer requests.
Resembling warehouses, these no-entry shops are smaller than traditional retail shops and are usually located close to large urban centres.
