The increase in retail trade turnover in March was influenced primarily by stores selling manufactured goods, where turnover increased by 33 percent on year, according to Statistics Estonia analyst Johanna Linda Pihlak.

"The rapid growth in the turnover of stores selling manufactured goods was related to the fact that shopping centers were closed last March due to COVID-related restrictions," Pihlak explained.

Among stores selling manufactured goods, the biggest growth, at 87 percent, was recorded in the turnover of stores selling textiles, clothing and footwear. Turnover increased by 56 percent in other specialized stores selling predominantly computers and their accessories, books, sports equipment, games, toys, etc., by 55 percent in other non-specialized stores selling predominantly manufactured goods, i.e. department stores, by 43 percent in stores selling second-hand goods and in non-store retail sale such as stalls, markets and direct sales, by 29 percent in stores selling household goods and appliances, hardware and building materials, and by 9 percent in pharmacies and stores selling cosmetics.

In March 2021, there were significantly more purchases made from online stores. This March, in contrast, saw the turnover of stores selling via mail order or online decrease by 13 percent.

Compared with last March, the turnover of grocery stores increased by 1 percent, while the turnover of enterprises engaged in the retail sale of automotive fuel increased by 22 percent.

Compared with February, the turnover of retail trade enterprises in Estonia increased by one quarter. According to seasonally and working-day adjusted data, March turnover rose by 7 percent on month.

In the first quarter of 2022, the turnover of retail trade enterprises increased by 10 percent on year.

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