The German distance-selling sector generated strong Christmas sales in December 2012 surpassingby far the figures of the previous year, according to the country’s interactive trading association
bvh.During last year’s peak Christmas period, the interactive trade in Germany recorded total salesworth €8.3 billion which equals a 22% increase compared to the same period in 2011 when €6.8billion in revenues were generated.
Sales from e-commerce accounted for 66% of the €8.3 billion figure, soaring by 25% to reach €5.5billion.
“The excellent Christmas sales figures reflect the positive development in the interactive tradeduring the whole of last year. The e-commerce share is especially interesting in terms of Christmasbusiness with its annual average share in total sales amounting to over 70% and 66% during thefestive period. This is a clear sign that print plays a significant role for business atChristmas,” bvh executive director Christoph Wenk-Fischer commented.
During last year’s Christmas period, the top-selling product category was clothes, textiles andshoes with sales worth €2,300 million, followed by media and consumer electronics with €820 millionand books generating sales of €560 million. The fourth-best selling product group includedcomputers and accessories with €530 million, followed by articles related to leisure, hobbies andcollection with €374 million.
Digital products such as tickets for sports events, theatre, concerts or cinema as well astravel are becoming increasingly important at Christmas. These ‘non-physical’ products, along withgift coupons, are popular presents, bvh added. During the Christmas period 2012 alone, anadditional €1.7 billion was generated with digital products, on top of the €8.3 billion in physicalgoods.
The results are based on the bvh-study ‘Interactive Trade in Germany 2012’. As part of this,around 30,000 private persons aged over 14 were surveyed regarding their spending behaviour inmulti-channel online and distance trade and regarding their consumption of digital products duringthe time period January-December 2012.
In addition to this study, bvh has conducted another study about the economic situation in theB2B mail-order trade 2012, in cooperation with Creditreform Business Research. As part of thestudy, 120 B2B shippers provided information about their economic situation, the business outlookand financial conditions.
In general terms, the study revealed that the German interactive trade in the B2B segmentcontinued to generate good growth in 2012 despite a slight slowdown in economic activity. 47.5% ofthe companies surveyed assessed their business development as ‘very good’ or ‘good’ last year. Theeconomic situation of enterprises with more than 100 staff is considered as the best with 53%assessing it as ‘very good’ or ‘good’.
Even though the slowing dynamics in 2012 impacted the revenues and incoming orders of the GermanB2B mail-order companies, 47.5% of those surveyed generated sales growth, but with a slight declinecompared to 2011. However, the industry is looking positively into the future with two out of fiveB2B shippers (40.8%) expecting a revenue surplus in the coming half year.
Meanwhile, HDE, the German retail association, expects nominal growth of 1% in the German retailsector in 2013 which remains an important stability factor for the national economy with onlinetrade playing an increasing role in the last few years. In 2012, the sector’s revenues increased13% to €29.5 billion. Looking ahead, HDE expects another revenue growth of 12% for 2013.
