What is a discount

When talking about discount stores, they refer to a retail space ranging between 200 and 1000 square meters.

This type of store consistently offers products at discounted prices.

The products provided by the discount store are also known as convenience store items: namely pre-packaged and non-branded products with limited choice.

Usually, these products deal exclusively with convenience goods, also referred to as convenience goods.

Unlike other retail outlets such as supermarkets and hypermarkets, the discount store has a limited assortment of products and represents a type of self-service retail outlet for mass-market goods.

Types of discount stores

The discount store presents two main categories:

• Soft discount: features larger surfaces with at least 1500 industrial brand products;
• Hard discount: has smaller surfaces and sells off-brand products.

In Italy, the discount leader is Eurospin with over 1,200 stores, followed by Lidl, and in third place we find MD.

These stores are linked to other small chains, such as the Ligurian Ekom, Qui Discount, Alter Discount.

Advantages of discount products

The discount store, as we have already mentioned, sells off-brand products.

A large part of the products are manufactured by very well-known companies with prestigious brands for the most part marketed under the distributor's own brands.

Furthermore, they use fantasy brands for their own products: Lidl has the Milbona brand and Fin carré for wafers; Eurospin and MD have their own portfolio of brands.

This brand creation offers several advantages to the discount store:

• The possibility of making products more attractive to the customer;
• The ability to change suppliers if necessary.

Last but not least, it allows for offering "premium" products, meaning products priced higher within a certain category and considered by consumers as irreplaceable compared with competing products and brands.