German B2B e-shippers are optimistic for 2016 thanks to solid economic development last year, with every second B2B company assessing its business conditions as “good” or “very good”, according to a new survey by the German e-commerce association bevh, in cooperation with Creditreform AG.
The index, which reviews the business conditions of the German B2B e-shippers based on positive and negative evaluations, registered an optimistic tendency in 2015. Thus, 55% of the B2B e-retailers surveyed consider their business situation to be good or very good, which represents a 6.6% rise compared to 2014. This optimistic attitude has especially increased among small and medium sized B2B shippers with up to 20 and up to 100 employees respectively.
However, the number of companies that were dissatisfied with their financial situation last year also increased to 5%, up from 2.4% in 2014.
When looking at 2016, half of the companies (50%) surveyed described themselves as confident about their business conditions, up from 45.1% in the previous year. At the same time, the proportion of companies that are pessimistic about the outlook in 2016 went down to 3.4%, comparing to 4.8% the year before.
"The economic outlook for the B2B mail order companies remains good,” Siebo Woydt, CEO of Creditreform AG, said. "The external economic and political risks certainly bear some disruptive potential for the German economy as a whole – but the B2B e-shippers have still started the new year with confidence.”
In terms of order volumes, the level continues to be high for a third year in a row, with 46.7% of the respondents having recorded more orders last year than a year before, up from 45.2% in 2014. More than a third (34.2%) didn’t notice any significant changes while the number of companies registering a decline went down to 19.2% in 2015, comparing to 21.8% in 2014. In 2016, 59.2% of the respondents expect the order volumes to remain stable at about the same level.
In terms of revenues, a positive trend could also be observed in 2015 after evaluating positive and negative sales reports. Thus, 52.5% of the B2B mail order companies registered a revenue increase last year, up from 46.8% in 2014 while 20% of the respondents recorded a revenue decline, similar to 21% in 2014. The share of retailers who recorded profits last year was 39.2% remaining nearly at the level of 2014 (39.5%). The number of retailers who recorded a profit increase grew significantly to 36.7%, up from 24.2% in 2014. Despite these positive developments, over half of the B2B mail order companies remain cautious with their future forecasts expecting their revenues and profits to remain at about the same level.
As part of this year’s study, bevh dedicated a special survey to the need for skilled workers in the B2B mail order trade. Despite the good economic situation, the German B2B mail order companies have to cope with rising competition which makes it increasingly difficult to win employees in growth areas.
"The problem of the shortage in skilled workers in e-commerce is not new, but the B2B e-shippers do not see any urgent need for action at present. The aim is to pave the way now to avoid a backlog of investments and personnel at a later stage,” Martin Groß-Albenhausen, Deputy Executive Director of bevh, said.
Every seventh B2B mail order company is already expecting an increasing demand for e-commerce professionals, the special survey showed.
