The Hungarian FMCG market’s gradual recovery in 2025 was among the rare pieces of good news last year. Online platforms in the segment did exceptionally well, with the top 10 players registering a 39% increase in revenue, a recent survey by PwC Hungary finds.
As further highlighted in the report, in FMCG purchasing decisions, price is no longer the only decisive factor; convenience and service quality are becoming equally important. Another key evolutionary path is the rise of experience-driven shopping, whether in brick-and-mortar stores or on online platforms. And this is where state-of-the-art solutions come into the picture.
According to Attila Bessenyei, CEO of leading local retail solutions provider Laurel Kft., the conceptual shift is already underway in Hungary, but the market showcases extreme polarization. While global multinational chains deploy multi-million-euro systems, many local stakeholders still face challenges related to legacy processes, inaccurate stock databases, and a lack of specialized in-house expertise. As a result, advanced technologies rarely define the actual consumer experience.
“High-impact retail experiences are built on friction-free operations: flawless inventory availability, highly personalized local loyalty offers, and streamlined checkout processes that eliminate queuing,” Bessenyei tells the Budapest Business Journal. “These elements can then be augmented with extended opening hours, even running fully automated, unstaffed overnight operations.”
Historically speaking, sophisticated retail tech, such as predictive restocking and advanced merchandise management systems, was strictly the playground of global retail behemoths. These companies have the capital, centralized knowledge centers, and corporate structures at their disposal to execute complex digital transformations.
In contrast, Hungarian regional chains, often operating between five and 20 locations, lack both the budget and the central management apparatus to match those resources.
However, Bessenyei argues that the technological landscape has been fundamentally democratized. Thanks to developments in artificial intelligence and software-as-a-service platforms, the barrier to entry has collapsed.
“This is not rocket science; SMEs no longer need to employ a small army of mathematicians and data engineers to build predictive forecasting algorithms,” Bessenyei explains. “The technology has become highly accessible, and even top shelf solutions should be up for grabs for all within two or three years. Today, we are talking about investments of a few million to tens of millions of forints, which can deliver incredibly rapid, tangible returns.”
Indeed, among the top 10 online FMCG players in Hungary, three are local: Pelenka.hu, which sells diapers, Petissimo, a pet food retailer and Idrinks, which specializes on beverages. They serve as perfect examples that the opportunity to make it big exists, even if you need to build your operation from the ground up, without any cross-border know-how.
Despite declining software costs, Hungarian retailers face another key obstacle: systemic data inaccuracy. A sophisticated forecasting algorithm or AI replenishment model is only as effective as the data that feeds it. In many local chains, inventory books are hampered by negative stock levels, unregistered products, and discrepancies in manual bookkeeping.
“There are still significant data quality and operational consistency challenges within many local retail chains” Bessenyei warns. “Negative inventory counts, misplaced batches, and missing vendor confirmations are commonplace, to name just a few anomalies.”
To address this, modern retail systems must not only highlight issues but also translate complex data patterns into actionable, simplified tasks for store-floor employees.
Speaking of data, retail technology can identify purchasing patterns and encourage more conscious choices through targeted discounts or personalized challenges. This requires transparent data management, ensuring that customers receive real value in exchange for sharing their data, as well as a clear sustainability strategy and environmental objectives from retailers.
A good example of this could be the upcoming cash register system based on electronic receipts, Bessenyei adds. The key question is how retailers will incentivize customers to adopt e-receipts: through discounts, simpler warranty management, or a more convenient shopping experience.
Connecting customer loyalty identification, electronic receipts, payments, and warranty management could offer a genuinely better alternative to the current, often fragmented process.
Agentic Commerce is another topic to consider, although it is a more distant prospect for physical retail stores, the expert notes. For now, AI-driven recommendations, influencing purchasing decisions, and winning over AI assistants are becoming increasingly important in the online environment. However, in omnichannel retail and last-mile delivery, accurate real-time inventory and pricing information, along with well-structured product data, are already essential.
“In the future, retailers will need to convince not only consumers but also the AI assistants acting on their behalf. While the final purchasing decision will remain with the customer, AI will increasingly shape which products are presented to them in the first place, including through behind-the-scenes assortment planning and optimization,” Bessenyei adds.
Compared with regional neighbors such as the Czech Republic, the Hungarian retail sector remains largely reactive. The economic headwinds and high inflation of the past two years further suppressed the sector’s appetite for innovation, leading companies to pile up cash reserves rather than invest in operations. As the economic climate stabilizes, however, the cost of inaction is growing.
“Many domestic networks operate under the false belief that because they have survived this long with legacy processes, they don’t need to change. But the operational reserves hidden within their businesses are immense. Those who fail to digitize their workflows now will find themselves unable to compete on margin, availability, or customer experience in the very near future,” Bessenyei insists.
A common misstep among domestic retailers is rigid, generic stock profiling. Traditionally, retail chains group their stores into categories based solely on floor size, assigning the same product assortment to every shop in that bracket. This neglects the micro-environment, regional demographic profiles, and the hyper-local purchasing habits of individual neighborhoods.
“Two convenience stores of identical size in different parts of the same city can have vastly divergent customer dynamics,” Bessenyei points out. “With AI-driven assortment optimization, regional chains can transition from rigid, boxed portfolios to hyper-localized, customer-centric selections.”
Asked what he would suggest FMCG companies improve on, Bessenyei mentions three priorities. “I would build a unified, real-time data platform, because AI cannot perform effectively without reliable, high-quality data,” he says. Secondly, he would introduce AI-based inventory, ordering, and pricing optimization, as these solutions can directly improve operational efficiency and profitability. Lastly, Laurel Kft.’s CEO would focus on enhancing the customer experience through personalized offers, digital loyalty programs, and faster, more convenient in-store payment solutions.
This article was first published in the Budapest Business Journal print issue of July 31, 2026.
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