Several companies have had to cut back their advertising as they cannot keep up with demand, Gál said, adding that some of them stop online advertising completely during the weekends as by Mondays they would have such a huge backlog of orders that they could not handle shipments on time.

Gál noted that according to data from GKI Digital online retail sales grew by 45% in 2020 to 909 billion forints (EUR 2.6bn) and it was this “explosive growth” that has caused the labour shortage in the sector.

He recommended companies deal with the situation through better work organisation and improved efficiency and also with putting more effort into retaining their best workers.