Germany's gross e-com product sales worth €99 bn in 2021

The 2020 figure of €83.3 billion was a 14.6 per cent higher from the figure in the year before.

E-commerce growth is stabilising higher after spikes at the beginning of the pandemic, indicating that its benefits, such as more options and better service, are here to stay, and business is unthinkable without e-commerce, says Gero Furchheim, president of e-commerce association Bev, in a press release.

At least 96.3 per cent of the buyers were ‘satisfied’ and ‘very satisfied’ with their orders. Additionally, 40.9 per cent of the respondents said that they had ordered online more than once in the last seven days. In 2020, this ratio was 39.7 per cent.

Mobile devices generated a good 40 per cent of all e-commerce sales in 2021, as mobile e-commerce sales volume grew by 56.5 per cent to €39.9 billion. In 2020, sales generated by mobile devices amounted to €28.1 billion, accounting for a third of all e-commerce sales.

This shows that mobile commerce is growing with German consumers. In two out of three cases, 14- to 29-year-olds bought their products via smartphone or tablet. Search engines and online shops are the most imported information channels for making purchase decisions, but they are followed by social media and apps.

Multi-channel retailers in the country reported sales growth of 16.7 per cent in 2021. Their growth was not as strong as that of pure internet players, reaching 18.4 per cent. In 2020, pure internet players reached sales growth of 9.5 per cent.

Bev expects merchandise sales will increase by 12 per cent and generate gross sales of more than €110 billion in 2022.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)