German ecommerce sales grew for the first time since 2021, says trade group

The news: Ecommerce sales in Germany rose 1.1% YoY last year to €80.6 billion ($87.2 billion), the first growth since 2021, per trade group BEVH.

• Our forecast, published last July, also anticipated positive sales growth last year.
• Both BEVH and our projections forecast an acceleration in online sales this year.

Zooming in: Three essential goods categories—medication (+6.3%), groceries (+5.5%), and pet supplies (+5.4%)—posted the largest YoY sales increases, while more discretionary categories like shoes (+0.8%) and clothing (+0.1%) saw modest gains. Electronics and telecommunications sales declined by -2.4%.

• Those results may reflect consumers’ growing confidence shopping online. Ninety-six percent of German consumers reported satisfaction with their online purchases, per a BEYONDATA GmbH survey, and the share of consumers planning to increase their ecommerce spending rose 130 basis points to an annual average of 7.5%, climbing further to 11.3% in Q4.
• Those gains stand out against the backdrop of Germany’s lackluster economy, which contracted by 0.2% YoY in 2024, marking its second consecutive year of decline.

Our take: The ecommerce data is a welcome bit of good news amid a challenging environment that recently led Wayfair to close up shop in Germany to focus on faster-growing markets.

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