Last year, trade turnover in Hungary increased by 3 percent compared to 2020, which means that it exceeded the pre-pandemic level in 2019, the secretary general of the National Trade Association said on television channel M1 on Sunday.
György Vámos said that from the autumn of 2021 sales showed a 5-6 percent increase compared to the previous year, with unprecedented queues at store checkouts before the festive season.
Online commerce - the turnover of online stores - grew at a slower rate of 20-25 percent in 2020 and 2021 compared to the previous highly dynamic growth of 30-40 percent per year, and accounted for 10-12 percent of the total trade turnover, he said.
He pointed out that in the case of online purchases the buyer has the right of withdrawal for a period of 14 days without providing a reason, which means that the seller is obliged to take back the product within this period.
He also said that new regulations coming into force in May will stop sellers from following a deceptive pricing practice regarding discounts, as they rule that the promotional price of a product must be based on the lowest price of the same product in the previous 30 days. In future, therefore, it will not be possible to promote a product by raising its price for one day and offering a discount on that price," he explained.
