For many people in Germany, the Internet remains the first choice for shopping, but the boom in online commerce is over for the time being. Turnover generated via the Internet rose slightly last year by almost one percent to 85.4 billion euros, the German Trade Association (HDE) announced on Monday. However, these figures are now a far cry from the high growth rates during the corona pandemic, when online trading increased by almost a quarter per year.
Turnover has been stagnating at a high level for years. In the non-food sector, the online share of total German retail sales fell by 0.2 percentage points to 18.5 percent.
“Online trading was the sales engine for the retail sector in Germany for many years,” says Stephan Tromp, Deputy Managing Director of HDE. “The high growth figures during the Corona years make it difficult for the sector to keep raising the bar. This year we are experiencing a further normalization of online sales.”
In addition to turnover, the share of companies that are now online is also stagnating, according to HDE. According to this study, about 41 percent of office supply retailers sold goods online last year. Nearly two-thirds of them operate their own online store. The others sell their goods via trading platforms such as Amazon or Zalando.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
