Cross border shopping is booming again after the franc strengthened against the Euro.
The Euro’s been hit recently due to high debt and political uncertainty in France.
Over the last few months, the franc has been relatively weak – making cross border shopping less attractive, but now there are better deals to be had.
There’s anecdotal and solid evidence for the shift. A manager at a shopping centre in Germany, near the Swiss border, told the Blick newspaper that the car park has more Swiss registered vehicles – as many as 40%.
To back up the observations, German officials say they’re now issuing more export certificates which allows Swiss shoppers to claim back the German VAT.
The trend is unwelcome to Swiss retailers who believe it’s costing local retailers billions. The Director of the Swiss Retail Federation, Dagmar Jenni, says he expects CHF 10 bn to be lost to cross border shopping.
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