Mass retail channels represent a modern system to sell food and non food products. They are made up of great structures and multinationals corporations that, thanks to numerous independent stores, cover the whole national territory.
Marketing chains, who manage the choice of suppliers, purchases and price policies at a central level, have a single brand under which name they develop commercial and promotional strategies.
The large-scale retail trade is made up of big central structures which are controlled by a single owner and that manage stores directly (in Italy, the most important ones are Carrefour, Auchan and Esselunga). Consumer cooperatives such as Coop Italia and retailer cooperatives such as Conad are also part of this category.
Purchasing consortiums are instead organised in quite a different manner. They are made up of small independent dealers who form purchasing groups. This way, small retailers can benefit from economic advantages and strategic functions thanks to their increased bargaining power. In Italy, the most important members of this category are Interdis, Selex, Sisa and Despar.
In general, whereas in Italy mass retailing is affected by competition coming from foreign giants, especially in the discount and hypermarket sectors, abroad there is a noticeable lack of Italian groups.
To give you an idea, in 2012 the turnover of Coop Italy was of €13.2 billion, that of Conad was of €10.9 billion whereas Esselunga reached €6.8 billion. In the same year, only taking into consideration Europe, French Carrefour made more than €88.4 billion, British Tesco made €79.3 billion and German Metro Group made €72.5 billion.
In the Deloitte chart of worldwide retailers, in fact, Coop Italy only ranked 56th, Conad 78th and Esselunga 125th, even though in the last year Italian retailers actually recorded better performances than international brands, which might have been penalised by the big surfaces and by "hypermarkets", which Italian consumers still haven't completely embraced.
According to AcNielsen, the sales channels of mass retailing are hypermarkets, supermarkets, discount stores, cash and carry, etc., classified according to their sales surfaces and assortment, even though each name then chooses its own format which depends on food or non food products or on the surface dedicated to fresh products.
In 2011, the market share of Supermarkets and Superstores (in pink in the chart) corresponded to 40.1% (AC Nielsen data for Federdistribuzione).
Finally, shopping malls represent an alternative to traditional stores and to those places such as town centres and high streets where shopping is usually concentrated. In Italy, the most important names in mass retailing are Auchan, Bennet, Carrefour Italia, Comas, Conad, Coop Italia, Coralis, Crai, Despar Italia, Dpiù discount, Esselunga, Eurospin, Il Gigante, IperDì, Lombardini, Lidl, Metro, Panorama, Penny Market, Sigma and Sisa.
