The pandemic caused by the COVID-19 virus has brought many industries to a halt, causing long-term damage. But on the other hand, it has greatly accelerated digital progress. This includes Germany, where digital commerce has become an indispensable part of the country.
Consumers from there love to shop online, and entrepreneurs have started to move their business to the virtual world, which has proven to be a very good idea and has significantly increased sales. All this is reflected in the statistics. New opportunities to conquer this market have also opened up. Still, in order for expansion to Germany to be successful, it is necessary to get acquainted with the specifics of the e-commerce market. About it in this article.
The Background of Germany’s e-commerce market
The German e-commerce market is the second largest in Europe. The country is ahead of France and behind the United Kingdom, with total sales of EUR 99.1 billion in 2021. By the end of 2022, the eCommerce market in Germany is expected to generate almost US$141.20 billion in revenue. This revenue is expected to show an annual growth rate (CAGR 2022-2025) of 11.46%, resulting in a projected market volume of almost US$195.50 billion by 2025. The following data does not yet reflect the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war.
Source: Statista
Year after year, B2C e-commerce experiences explosive growth. B2C online revenues in Germany grew from one to three million euros at the beginning of the twenty-first century, up to 73 billion euros by 2020. It’s a huge difference.
Source: Statista
Most German internet users shop online. A survey found that the largest share of online customers in Germany were between the ages of 25 and 44.
When German consumers use smartphones, they typically buy online products like clothing, shoes, books, train or plane tickets, and so forth. On the other hand, it is still more common to use desktop devices to make online purchases.
Source: Statista
Germany’s most popular online payment method was a bank transfer, followed by e-wallets and cards.
Source: Statista
Top E-commerce Retailers in Germany
Around 40 percent of German e-commerce revenue is generated by the top online shops.
Source: Statista
In May 2022, amazon.de ranked first in Germany for e-commerce and shopping websites. The sprawling platform accounted for nearly 32 percent of desktop traffic in this category during the measured period, followed by ebay.de with 13.93 percent. Among the top three most visited sites, ebay.kleinanzeigen.de accounted for 12.84 percent of visits.
Source: Statista
On the other hand, when looking at data from July 2022 and the revenue of the 100 leading online shops in Germany, Amazon tops the list, and Otto is in second place, selling fashion items, furniture, and consumer electronics online.
Source: Statista
Another well-established online retailer in Germany is Zalando. Its revenue has also increased year over year.
Interestingly, customers in Germany return packages quite often. In 2020, for example, as many as 315 million packages from online orders were returned. Of course, the motives could be many, but it’s a good indication to take a closer look at the reasons why packages are returned and eliminate them if possible.
Germany E-commerce vs. the Rest of the World
Revenue comparison selected the top five countries in the world, including Germany, with 141.20 billion USD. The first place belongs to china with 1,412.00 billion USD.
Source: Statista
As for the user penetration comparison, here, Germany is already higher, as high as third place, with a score of 80.1%. However, this country is behind Norway (81.6%) and the UK (81.5%).
Source: Statista
What’s interesting, in The USA, the most popular e-commerce and shopping websites, based on the share of visits, were also Amazon and eBay – like in Germany.
Source: Statista
The Future
The German eCommerce market is expected to reach 68.4 million users by 2025. Additionally, penetration is predicted to hit 81.9% by 2025, up from 80.1% in 2022. It is also expected that the average revenue per user (ARPU) will be US$2.10k.
According to segment-by-segment revenue forecasts, particularly for fashion products, electronics, and media, German e-commerce is expected to grow rapidly.
Over to You
A German e-commerce market is an attractive place that has a lot to offer new and existing entrepreneurs. However, in order to significantly accelerate the development of your business and become internationally recognized, it is worth knowing what German e-commerce looks like and how it operates. Hope you’ve learned all these essentials from our article.
