According to Taisia Lytovchenko, CEO of the Retail & Development Advisor consulting company, international brands’ expansion has slowed in the Ukrainian market. Nine trademarks started working last year, including Vans, The Athlete's Foot (TAF), 4F, Fransa & b.young, Intimissimi Uomo, Miss Sixty, Ochnik, FLO, and The Body shop. In comparison, 11 brands appeared in Ukraine in 2019, nearly 20 companies hit the market in 2018, and 25 brands opened the year before. Many non-food retailers’ scaling dynamics also slackened. They abandoned opening new stores and focused on business optimization and online commerce development that is more relevant in terms of the pandemic.
The RDA Company predicts the trend that will be valid as long as the market scales up commercial space. In other words, the revitalization of small regional shopping centers’ development is expected.
According to Taisia Lytovchenko, small chopping centers with decent concepts and tenants’ pools located in residential areas have proved to be resilient to the coronavirus epidemic. “Kyiv and other million-person cities’ markets will continue to replenish with large shopping centers, like TEC Respublika, Ocean Mall, Lukyanivska, Planeta Mall, Nikolsky, and others. However, even now, we see the upward trend in concern for small but comfortable shopping centers located within walking distance,” Taisia notes.
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