Interactive trade in Germany, Austria and Switzerland generated consolidated revenues of €60billion in 2013 accounting for nearly 10% of the overall retail trade in the three countries, with
the market growing by more than 50% in three years, according to new figures.The figures were presented by the respective e-commerce associations of Germany, Austria andSwitzerland at this week’s ‘etailment Summit 2.014’ in Berlin, which combines an e-commerceexhibition and conference under the motto ‘From Retail to Me-Tail’.
In 2010, e-commerce revenues in the three countries amounted to €40 billion, which is €20billion less than three years later. The e-commerce share of overall retail revenues increasedsignificantly from 6.6% in 2010 to 9.6% in 2013, and is still rising further.
The proportion of interactive trade in the overall retail trade has been constantly increasingin all the three markets, with the German market growing faster than Austria and Switzerland. TheSwiss interactive trade has the lowest absolute share in the country’s retail revenues of 6%, whilein Germany and Austria it amounts to 10% and 11% respectively. In terms of the online trade sharein total interactive trade, it reached 86% in Switzerland and 85.5% in Austria, leaving Germanybehind at 81%.
Especially in the food industry, there are clear differences between the three countries. InSwitzerland, groceries make up 12.8% of the interactive trade which is three times as much as inGermany and in Austria.
“Switzerland has been characterised for several years by a very high share of food online trade.The two largest food retailers Migros und Coop have contributed considerably to this developmentdriving the online grocery retail business with dedication and eagerness to experiment,” PatrickKessler, president of VSV, the Swiss mail-order trade association, explained.
Patricia Mussi, Managing Director of the Austrian Trade Association, added: “The Austrianstraditionally like buying in interactive trade. Due to the massive digitisation over the last fewyears, this trend has further intensified. The fact that the interactive food trade in Austria isstill the least developed is due to the very high density of supermarkets in Austria. In addition,the interactive trade in Austria is strongly focused on Germany, with over 50% of the revenues ofAustrians flowing abroad.”
In all three countries, the product category Textiles & Shoes makes up the largest share inthe interactive trade sales with €19.3 billion. In Germany, the second largest product groupmultimedia, hi-fi and electric appliances accounts for only a third of the leading product group.But in Austria and Switzerland, these two product categories are nearly on the same level in termsof sales.
Gero Furchheim, president of the German e-commerce association bevh, said that those textileretailers in Germany who distinguish themselves with innovative online concepts are traditionallystrong. “Austria and Switzerland are the most important markets for the cross-border business ofthe German online retailers. In the future, overall cross-border trade is estimated to grow twiceas fast as the domestic business.”
The figures are based on consumer and commercial surveys in the three countries and have beenbalanced before being put together. This way, the countries can be compared directly while theentire region can also be considered as a whole. Since the figures are based on consumer values,they represent a gross value. Switzerland has a VAT rate of 8%, which is much lower than 19% inGermany and 20% in Austria. This is reflected in the total volume.
