ECONOMIC CHALLENGES AND FINANCIAL OPPORTUNITIES OF ONLINE RETAIL IN UKRAINE DURING THE WAR: ALIGNMENT WITH GLOBAL TRENDS AND INNOVATIVE PERSPECTIVES

Abstract

This article serves both theoretical and practical purposes contributing to the body of knowledge, expanding our understanding of online retail development, particularly in challenging contexts, like wartime, suggesting further avenues for future studies, as well as providing practical guidance for Ukrainian online retailers, helping them improve their strategies, performance and financial capabilities, by stimulation of the innovation over emerging trends and opportunities. It explores the development and financial capabilities of online retail in Ukraine amidst the ongoing war, conducting a comparative analysis with global trends in consumer sentiments and retail business development. Retail is a fundamental pillar of any economy. It serves as a crucial intermediary between producers and consumers, ensuring the provision of essential goods for daily life. It is the main link in providing the population with everything necessary for everyday life and forming stable financial flows to replenish the country's budget. Consequently, the functionality and growth of retail are contingent upon its ability to swiftly adapt to evolving consumer behaviour, constantly finance investments in innovation, and actively seek new opportunities. The war against Ukraine is characterized by severe combat operations, including massive shelling and constant missile attacks. It has presented unprecedented challenges for retailers, including a significant shift in consumer priorities towards consumption, leisure, and future planning, resulting in a serious decline in purchasing power, disruptions to logistical routes, loss of personnel, fuel shortages, and blackouts. Despite these formidable adversities, over the 28 months of the war, retail, and particularly online retail, has demonstrated remarkable resilience, sustainable development and rapid recovery of financial capabilities. The conducted research is the outcome of a set of comprehensive analyses (trends, performance metrics, clustering) of the financial results of retail, primary challenges faced by Ukrainian retailers and the identification of effective adaptation strategies to ensure financial stability. Meta and content analysis with further synthesis of findings, could help to examine the implementation of service-oriented business models, such as marketplaces, which offer a vast array of products and competitive pricing, as a key adaptation strategy. The study also delves into the popularization of online retail and the trends in the transition to hybrid online sales like omnichannel, enabling a "seamless" customer experience through the synchronization of product, pricing, and order information across all sales channels. Additionally, retailers are actively working to enhance logistics and delivery speed through partnerships with logistics companies, establishing their own courier delivery services, and expanding their physical presence through retail outlets. A comparative analysis with international experience reveals the similarities and differences in the challenges faced by Ukrainian retailers, the factors contributing to success and the methods of transformation. It further explores the adoption of digital technologies and innovative approaches to maintain competitiveness and financial stability even under the challenging conditions of war.

Keywords

• online retail
• differentiation
• business transformation
• marketplace
• omnichannel
• service-oriented business model