Bundesverband E-commerce und Versandhandel Deutschland latest study shows that the German population spent 49 billion euros via distance selling last year, this was mainly from internet e-commerce. Online shopping grew by 7 percent, which was well above the rest of the growth in the retail sector.
When BEVH looked at the online and traditional mail order sales from last year they found that 41.9 billion was made in online commerce sales where the overall market was worth a total of 49.1 billion euros. Germany has grown by 7 percent in the last year as its overall turnover in 2014 was 85.3% compared to last years turnover of 81%.President of the BEVH Gero Furcheim said “The development of last year shows us two things: the online and mail order commerce has established itself as an integral part of the retail sector and is thus also vulnerable to economic fluctuations. The fact that despite the difficult environment last year has led to the online trade continuing to grow is at the same time a clear indication of the industry’s potential.”
Clothing sales was worth 11.9 billion euros making it the most popular product category. In second and third place came electronics at 5 billion euros and books at 4.1 billion euros. Categories such as furniture and decorative items accounted for 2.5 billion euros that is a significant increase from last year.
With online e-commerce increasing the study shows that tablet and mobile commerce is on the rise. The association believes that multi channel merchants are the clear winners as they respond and reach customers through multiple channel. BEVH predicts a 5% rise to 51.6 billion euros for the total online and mail order industry, while commerce alone will probably increase by 12% to 46.9 billion euros.