Bevh (der Bundesverband E-Commerce und Versandhandel Deutschland e.V), Ecommerce Europe’s German national association, recently published the e-commerce growth figures of the German market for 2021. If every 7th euro is spent online by German consumers overall, figures are even more impressing as for the non-food segment, which recorded every 5th euro spent on its behalf.
Although figures for e-commerce for goods and those for services diverge, with the former going up (+19%) and the latter decreasing (-12.8%) compared to last year mostly due to pandemic-related restrictions), the sector overall generated 107 billion in turnover. Such results might be yielded by an increased frequency of online orders, together with a remarkable rate of satisfaction and a tendency to buy online from mobile devices. Thus, four out of ten respondents declare they have shopped online more than once in the last 7 days. Customer satisfaction peaked at 96.3%, despite fears of disruptions in the supply chains. Finally, 40.2% of the total e-commerce turnover was generated by mobile transactions.
A closer look at the individual performances of goods sectors reveals that the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) category is the fastest-growing cluster (+36.4%), whereas the entertainment product category is the largest cluster (€32.8 billion).
Ultimately, the diversity of shopping channels does not appear to conflict with significant individual growth rates. Online marketplaces remain the most preferred channel, making up the half of the total turnover for 2021 (+19.9%). However, growth figures identify direct sales from manufacturers to consumers (D2C) as the fastest-growing category, with a rate hitting +25.4%. For their part, pure players enjoyed a higher growth in turnover (+18.4%) than multi-channel retailer (+16.7%).
Given these positive results, optimistic outlooks are therefore to be expected for the current years.
About the report
The report has been published by the German association bevh on 26 January 2022. The original press release (in German) with all tables can be downloaded here. Bevh’s presentation for the press conference (also in German) can be downloaded here.