Internationalization in the Function of Retail Trade Concentraton in the Croatia

Abstract

Internationalization and concentration are two key processes that are taking place in retail markets of the European countries. The consequence of the internationalization process in retail trade segment is increasing significance of foreign traders in retail structures with, simultaneously, decreasing significance of national/domestic traders. The intensity of mentioned process differs from country to country and it is conditioned by number of push and pull factors that are accelerating of slowing down the process. Retail trade concentration process occurs in all European countries and it’s manifested with decreasing number of leading traders with simultaneous increase in their market share. Reached level of retail trade concentration is conditioned by the whole economy concentration level of each country. Retail trade internationalization process in Croatian retail market is influenced by the presence of foreign traders from EU markets. Foreign traders headquartered in one of the EU countries controlled 29.6% of total sales in food and grocery retail trade segment in 2007. The advantages and disadvantages of two mentioned processes will be explored in details and presented in this paper.