Ierapetra retailers report 30% drop in summer sales as discount period ends
Retailers in Ierapetra say this summer’s sales season was one of the most difficult in years, with turnover down by roughly 30% compared with previous years, according to local business representatives.
Greece’s summer discount period ran for 50 days, from July 10 to Monday, August 31. Despite steep markdowns from the outset, most Ierapetra merchants said they failed to improve on previous years’ turnover.
“We went through a difficult summer, in which we failed to sell our seasonal merchandise even after cutting prices in half. We are now starting the offers period, which will last two weeks, and in those 15 days we will try to sell off whatever stock remains at even lower prices,” said Kaiti Papadaki, a board member of the Ierapetra Traders’ Association, in comments to Nea Kriti and neakriti.gr.
Merchants point to changing shopping habits
Papadaki said most colleagues at Ierapetra’s commercial center described it as the toughest summer of the past decade, with customers demanding bigger discounts even on items already marked half-price. She said many consumers now lack the purchasing power they once had and increasingly search online for lower prices, often unaware that products ordered online do not always match what is delivered.
According to Papadaki, a large share of consumers now shop from home via the internet, and this shift, combined with financial pressure also affecting foreign customers, has cut turnover at bricks-and-mortar shops by around 30%. She said retailers now hope favorable weather will help clear remaining stock during the two-week offers period so they can meet their financial obligations.
Dimitris Vavoulas, a clothing retailer in Ierapetra, said consumers this year bought only strictly necessary items and that clothing and footwear stores performed poorly overall. “Our turnover is down around 30%. Only in the second half of July was there any real activity in the market,” he said, adding that Athenian visitors, who had been demanding the previous year, were more accommodating this August.
Similar picture across Greece
Trade associations across the country report similar conditions. Thanos Tsagaris, president of the Athens Traders’ Association, said discounts remain the main tool for clearing seasonal stock for small and medium-sized businesses, but argued the institution has been undermined by a regulatory framework that allows offers to run continuously and without structure.
Tsagaris said consumers have been squeezed by high prices and housing costs, changing their spending priorities, while small and medium-sized retailers face rising operating costs and growing competition from large chains and online platforms. He called for dialogue with the government, stable rules and measures with no fiscal cost that could ease pressure on the market, warning that without intervention many small retailers—particularly in regional markets—could close within two to three years.
Survey finds most businesses want rule changes
A survey by the Athens Traders’ Association of 409 small and medium-sized retail businesses found that 71.3% reported lower turnover than the previous year.
With the discount period now over, attention has turned to the model of ongoing promotional offers and whether their constant presence has weakened the statutory discount periods. The same survey found that 98% of businesses want changes to the regulatory framework governing offers and discounts, while 93.4% said the current system of continuous offers mainly benefits large companies, multinationals and online platforms at the expense of small and medium-sized retailers. The same share said stricter rules on offers, through amendments to the existing framework, could help restore interest in the official discount periods.
