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The European Commission launched on 12 March its action plan for retail and wholesale to achieve sustainability, digitalisation and skills transformation in its Retail Transition Pathway.
EuroCommerce Director-General, Christel Delberghe, said: “The launch of the Retail Transition Pathway is a first step to bring all actors together to help the sustainability, digitalisation and skills transformation of the sector. We need the Retail Transition Pathway to be at the centre of future EU industrial policy and national programmes, placing the Single Market at the heart, and ensuring better understanding in law making and support for the massive transformation under way. The momentum has started and must be followed through, so retailers and wholesalers can remain competitive, resilient and continue to serve the millions of EU business customers and consumers it does every day.”
In 2022, EuroCommerce together with McKinsey identified that the retail and wholesale sector needs to invest up to €600 billion for its sustainability and digitalisation transformation and for the talent that underpins that. The Retail Transition Pathway will support the five key projects that are identified as supporting the sector’s needs for its transformation, to ensure that retailers and wholesalers can reach their potential and also, contribute to EU climate, digital and skills goals.
The pathway places the Single Market at the heart of the strategy. The Single Market is the bedrock for retail and wholesale’s competitiveness and ability to serve consumers and business customers with a wide range of products and services, at affordable prices. EuroCommerce calls upon the EU institutions and governments to demonstrate their unequivocal commitment to the Single Market and to alleviate the pressure on businesses from the regulatory tsunami that they are currently submerged in.
The Retail Transition Pathway is a follow-up to the EU’s Industrial Strategy, a Commission initiative to develop an actionable plan to increase resilience, sustainability and digitalisation for each industrial ecosystem. Taking on board the lessons learned from the pandemic, the energy crisis and disruptions caused by the invasion of Ukraine to strive toward a more competitive EU.
The variety of retail and wholesale makes it relevant to many different ecosystems, particularly agri-food and textile, as well as deserving its own place – the retail ecosystem. It is the largest ecosystem in the EU, providing 26 million jobs (1 in 7 jobs), contributing to 10% of EU GDP and supporting millions of jobs in supply chains from small suppliers to major international companies. The ecosystem supports entrepreneurship with over 99% of the 5 million retail and wholesale companies being SMEs (1 in 4 of all EU SMEs). It plays a key role in the life and attractiveness of cities, smaller towns and villages.
For more information, visit the EuroCommerce website and read in our contributions to the retail and agri-food ecosystems.
Notes to the editor.
EuroCommerce also published an article and a video on this issue:
Article link: https://www.eurocommerce.eu/updates/transition-pathway-preparing-for-a-stronger-retail-and-wholesale-sector-in-the-future/
Video link: https://youtu.be/teUTpSPKbbg?si=jjzSLVJjOiErJCIw
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