Background information

Retail stores that were not allowed to open during the Christmas holidays, operated with the method of the so-called “click-away service”. The measure was in force from 13 December 2020 until seven January 2021 after a governments’ decision to open the market during the holiday season, after a long-lasting lockdown in the commerce sector, which was imposed from November 2020. The “click-away” method is under consideration to be imposed again, if a partial lockdown will be decided, depending on the COVID-19 evolution of the pandemic. Actually, the measure was activated again from eight February 2021.

Content of measure

The measure was implemented in small and medium sized commercial shops and not in malls or big shopping centers.

The customer makes the order per telephone or via the e-shop.

• An appointment to pick up the order is made by the shop.
• Payment via the e-shop or with POS outside the shop
• The customer goes to the shop with an e-receipt or sms by the store, where date and time are of the appointment are mentioned.
• Only one person will go to the shop to pick up the order.
• Outside the shop queues of up to 9 people standing at a 2-meter distance is allowed.
• Shops allowing customers inside are to be fined with €2,000-50,000 and shut down 15-90 days.
• Also, the click-away measure has been decided as the courier services couldn’t cope due to high demand during the lockdown started on early November 2020.

Use of measure

Based on the electronic data collected by the Ministry of Finance, the click away method, was partially successful because limited the reduction of the turnover of all retail sectors to 40%, as compared to the same period of 2019. The shops in which the “click away” succeeded to limit the turnover losses, were toy stores, gift and accessory shops, jewelry stores, bookstores, cosmetics, telephony and communication shops. On the contrary, the clothing and footwear shops, were the two sectors that had a relatively small improvement in reducing their turnover, as the decline in revenues remained high during the holiday season.

Contents

• Other topics
• Work organisation

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Employees in standard employment	Sector specific set of companies SMEs	Applies to all citizens

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
Company / Companies	Employer

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	No involvement	No involvement
Form	Not applicable	Not applicable

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

• No involvement
• Main level of involvement: Company level

Involvement

There is no involvement of social partners.

Views and reactions

The Board of Directors of the Hellenic Confederation of Trade and Entrepreneurship (ESΕE) at its extraordinary meeting, in 12 December, examining the new framework for the operation of the market in the Christmas period, expressed the view that click away will not help to lose the seasons turnover for small and medium-sized commercial enterprises. On the new measure it adopted a protest resolution and proposed a package of detailed measures to address the impact on small and medium-sized commercial enterprises.

Sectors and occupations

This case is not occupation-specific.

Sources

• 11 December 2020: Greece ‘s limited re-opening measures over Christmas holiday (www.keeptalkinggreece.com)
• 22 April 2022: Won and lost branches of click away (Κερδισμένοι και χαμένοι κλάδοι του click away (www.capital.gr)