On the shelf instead of: Russians began to save on shopping in stores

Russians began to save on shopping in stores — the growth rate of retail spending has halved. This is stated in a study conducted by Sovcombank. The propensity of Russians to save increased significantly in September, the Central Bank also notes — the share of those who prefer to save free money has reached its maximum since 2023. The change in consumer activity has led to changes in the revenue structure of retailers — now they are growing at the expense of discounters and corporate clients, according to reports from companies that have studied Izvestia.

Russians are thinking about saving money

The growth rate of Russians' spending in stores has halved, from 13-14% in January to 6% by the end of July, according to a Sovcombank study (available from Izvestia). The tendency of citizens to save remained in September, according to the data of the Bank of Russia. The share of those who prefer to save their free money has reached 56%, the highest since March 2023, according to the regulator.

The trend is also being recorded by other market analysts. Thus, the share of high—income respondents who seek to save money by limiting spontaneous purchases has more than doubled over the year, from 22% to 47%, according to the B1 survey (formerly Ernst & Young). The change in consumer activity has led to a "transitional state" in retail, Alfa-Bank analysts state in their bulletin (available to Izvestia).

Retail trade increased by 2.2% in the first eight months of 2025, which is four times lower than a year earlier, the chairman of the Presidium of the Association of Retail Trade Companies (ACORT) told Izvestia Stanislav Bogdanov. Demand for non—food products slowed down the most: turnover in this segment increased by 2% in January - August, which is almost six times lower than in 2024, he noted.

In the grocery retail sector, the growth rate in January—September decreased to 2% from 6-8% a year earlier, a representative of X5 (Pyaterochka, Perekrestok, Chizhik) told Izvestia. According to him, the trend towards reducing consumption in food retail continues, stores are becoming more compact and rationalizing their assortment. But, for example, 79% of young people tend to save money, while a third of respondents reduce spending in one category to increase it in another, the X5 representative added.

In micromarkets, the volume of purchases in units slowed down — sales in July increased by only 2.6% compared to January, compared with an increase of 26% over the same period in 2024, said Gleb Kharitonov, founder of Briskly. The average check has decreased from two or three positions to one or two, he added.

The change in consumer sentiment was also influenced by trends in the labor market and household incomes, said Mikhail Burmistrov, CEO of Infoline Analytics. According to him, the number of people in part-time employment is increasing, and companies are reducing employee bonus payments. This inevitably leads to consumers ceasing to increase their budgets for purchases, including food. Consumers are starting to take a more pragmatic approach to how they spend their money, he added.

Rapid changes in the market are forcing retailers to shorten the planning horizon and focus on tactical issues rather than long-term development, says Ekaterina Tuzikova, senior industry analyst for the consumer sector at Alfa-Bank. At the same time, the opportunities for rapid business growth of large players are decreasing, she noted. This is due to the growing maturity of the market and the stabilization of the structure of key participants, supported by the trend towards conscious consumption, the analyst added.

Buyers pay attention to the cost of goods and look for more profitable offers, for example, among retailers' own brands (STM), the representative of Detsky Mir agrees. According to him, the share of STM in the company's revenue reached 60%, and in the clothing and footwear segment — 98% of the assortment. A similar situation is observed in stationery, he noted.

The demand for own brands of chains is growing most actively in hard discounters, where STM accounts for a significant part of the assortment, Stanislav Bogdanov added.

How do retailers make money?

The volume of the consumer trade market in the first six months of 2025 amounted to 28.9 trillion rubles, which is 11.1% more than in the same period of 2024, calculated by Sovcombank. The growth rate of the market by the end of the first half of the year was fully supported by inflation, according to a study by a financial institution.

At the same time, the DIY (household) segment has been experiencing a shift from the do-it-yourself to do-it-for-me model for several years, when the consumer does not do it himself, but resorts to the services of craftsmen, companies and prefers ready-made solutions, said a representative of <url>. Against this background, the retailer has focused on the B2B direction, he noted. For the first nine months, revenue under IFRS amounted to 134.3 billion rubles (+12% YoY). At the same time, the share of corporate clients in the revenue structure is 74.4%, according to the financial statements.

In the grocery retail sector, discounters are showing the main growth, Sovcombank analysts say. In January — September, X5's revenue under IFRS amounted to 3.4 trillion rubles, which is 20% more than in the same period of 2024, the company announced on October 16. The discounter Chizhik showed the greatest growth dynamics, its revenue increased 1.8 times year-on-year, to 297 billion rubles, according to the financial statements. For comparison, at Pyaterochka, it increased by 17.1%, to 2.7 trillion rubles, at Perekrestok — by 9.1%, to 385 billion. Only Chizhik showed double—digit traffic growth among X5 stores - 58.4%, Pyaterochka increased by 6.7%, and Crossroads decreased by 2%, according to the reports.

Other major retailers have not yet disclosed their financial statements for nine months. At the same time, in January — June, Magnit's revenue (Magnit, Dixie, ABC of Taste) It amounted to 1.6 trillion rubles (+14.7% YoY). Discounter Dixy grew the most in the group — by 15.7%, to 182.8 billion, according to the IFRS financial statements.

O'KEY Group's revenue under IFRS increased by 3.8% over the same period, to 109 billion rubles. The company's growth was driven by the discounters "YES!" — this figure increased by 11%, to 39.1 billion, and hypermarkets — by only 0.1%, to 70.5 billion.

Lenta Group's revenue in January —June jumped by 24.3% compared to 2024, to 513.9 billion rubles, according to its financial statements. The largest annual growth during this period was shown by the "at home" format — by 30%, to 164.2 billion rubles. For supermarkets and Lenta hypermarkets, this figure increased by 26% and 11%, respectively.

Representatives of Lenta and Magnit declined to comment. The O'KEY Group did not respond to the request.

By the end of the year, retail trade turnover in Russia will grow by 7.6% compared to 2024, to 64.1 trillion rubles, IBC Real Estate consulting company predicts.

In 2025, the retail market will continue to develop due to regional diversification - entering new business areas, as well as due to a shift in demand towards affordable formats, primarily hard discounters and the online segment, believes Vyacheslav Berdnikov, chief analyst at Sovcombank's Asset Analysis Department for Private Equity Investment.