Internet
Online retailers continue to face headwinds
Bucking the general trend, sales of digital services also increased in the first quarter. photo
© Karl-Josef Hildenbrand/dpa
Online trade in Germany continues to be ailing. In the first quarter, sales of goods on the Internet collapsed by 15 percent. Many traders are pessimistic about the future.
Online trade continues to suffer from the reluctance of many people in Germany to buy. In the first quarter of 2023, online sales of goods were 19.4 billion euros, 15 percent below the previous year’s level, as the e-commerce association bevh announced. The losses were particularly strong in the sale of shoes and clothing, jewelry and watches, as well as computers and other electronic items.
“People are deferring purchases that are not urgently needed, such as fashion, jewelery and entertainment items,” said deputy bevh managing director Martin Groß-Albenhausen. It looks better in ranges that serve daily care or everyday domestic use. Of all 20 product categories examined by the association, online food retailing was the only order category with slight growth, up 3.7 percent.
Bucking the general trend, sales of digital services – such as the sale of concert tickets or holiday bookings – also increased in the first quarter. Sales increased by a good 28 percent to 2.4 billion euros compared to the previous year.
Looking to the future, many in the industry are skeptical. Almost half of the online retailers surveyed in the latest bevh industry barometer (47.4 percent) do not believe that they will be able to achieve the sales results of the past year in 2023. Last year, gross sales of goods in e-commerce fell by 8.8 percent to 90.4 billion euros.