The German online retail sector generated a sales increase of nearly 14% in the first nine weeks of the fourth quarter 2015 while the logistics industry is going full speed to cope with the online shopping rush, with new logistics models emerging such as same day delivery.
According to the German e-commerce association bevh, interactive sales comprising online and distance trade in Germany increased by 5.7% during the first nine weeks of Q4 2015 reaching €10.4 billion. Online sales, accounting for 92% of all interactive sales, grew by 13.6% to €9.6 billion. Revenues from digital services generated €2.8 billion during this time, an increase of 9.3% on the corresponding period last year.
"Experience shows that the lion's share of the Christmas shopping season in interactive trade is generated in the last four weeks of the year,” Martin Gross-Hausen, Deputy Director of bevh, said, looking optimistically towards the end of the year. The figures from previous Christmas periods confirm the ongoing trend among German consumers to buy Christmas gifts increasingly at short notice.
"Thanks to same-day delivery, last minute shopping no longer leads to sleepless nights. With some retailers, customers can order Christmas gifts for their loved ones even until 24 December at lunchtime,” he said, highlighting an emerging trend towards same-day delivery.
Bevh pointed out that Amazon has given a new meaning to same-day delivery by launching the service in Germany last month even though same-day delivery as such is nothing new. “In the B2B sector it is already common practice and also when it comes to shipping medicine,” it said. In the B2C sector, however, which targets end-customers, same-day delivery has been rather a niche business as it requires additional costs.
An overview of e-commerce logistics in Germany for 2015 by e-commerce journal Internet World has shown that the average consumer is satisfied with the status quo and same-day delivery is some kind of a future trend for most online shoppers which they are not willing to spend additional money on. For them, punctual delivery is more important than delivery within 24 hours.
However, Amazon has made the service more attractive now offering it for free for Amazon Prime members who pay an annual membership fee of €49. Non-Prime members need to pay €9.99 to use it.
Other companies such as the fashion and shoe retailer Zalando or the electronics retailer Media-Saturn have responded to Amazon’s initiative very quickly. This month, Zalando has expanded its same-day delivery pilot to ten German cities, surprising randomly chosen customers, who ordered something from its website, with the service which remains free at the moment. Media-Saturn has been offering its customers same-day delivery for some time now but it has now launched an exact delivery time slot of three hours for currently €14.95.
“We can see that big players are picking up this trend and offer the service to customers at prices acceptable on the market. This way, same-day delivery becomes suitable for the ‘mass market’. Customers will learn to appreciate this service quickly. Just think of a party planned for this evening for which you still lack some equipment. You just order it on the way to work via your smartphone and everything will arrive on time for the party. Or you forgot someone’s birthday or a wedding anniversary – ordered in the morning, delivered in the evening,” bevh concluded.
According to experts, around 1.3 billion of the 2.8 billion parcels that were transported by the German CEP industry in 2014 (source: BIEK) were generated through e-commerce.
