consequences of war
Online trade in Germany is growing more slowly
The growth of online trade in Germany shrank to just 2.3 percent after the outbreak of war. Photo: picture alliance / Karl-Josef Hildenbrand/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
The consequences of the Ukraine war are also making themselves felt in German online retail. In some sectors, sales have fallen significantly, while others have even recorded growth.
The outbreak of the Ukraine war also left deep scars in German online retail.
The stormy sales growth in e-commerce that was observed until the beginning of the war on February 24 was significantly slowed down after the Russian troops invaded the Ukraine, the industry association bevh reported on Monday. While sales in online trade in goods increased by an average of 11.5 percent in the weeks before the war, growth shrank to just 2.3 percent after the outbreak of war. Only because of the strong turnover in the weeks after Christmas did online trade still achieve an overall turnover increase of 8.2 percent in the 1st quarter.
Online retailing of clothing and shoes suffered particularly badly. Here, after the start of the war, sales fell by 8.6 percent compared to the previous year. Furnishings business has also been much worse since the outbreak of war. However, there were also sectors that were significantly less affected by many people’s reluctance to buy. In the case of everyday goods, sales growth in online retail after the outbreak of the war was 19.4 percent, although slightly below the level of the previous weeks, but remained above average.
More demand for medicines
According to bevh, the online purchase of medicines even experienced a boost in sales. Growth in this category, which is already dynamic due to the ongoing corona pandemic, jumped by more than 40 percent after February 24.
“There are companies that are providers or suppliers of urgently needed goods and are therefore experiencing more demand, and those whose product range currently seems hardly relevant to people,” said deputy bevh general manager Martin Groß-Albenhausen, explaining the different tendencies.
Revenue from services, such as online bookings for travel or events, also recovered in the first quarter. These had suffered massively from Corona and increased by almost two thirds (64.2 percent) to 1.85 billion euros in the first quarter of 2022. Here too, however, the beginning of the war marked a turning point: From the beginning of January to February 24, sales almost doubled (+93.3 percent), only to fall back to moderate growth of 13.4 percent after the beginning of the war.