German distance sales companies are largely optimistic for the forthcoming Christmas sales seasonthanks to continued online sales growth, which will result in more B2C parcels for home delivery
over the next few weeks.About 44% of distance sellers expect higher revenues and a further 36% predict stablerevenues for November and December, according to a member survey by the German distance salesassociation (BVH).
E-commerce is the key driving force behind the positive outlook, with 56% of the BVH’s 290members describing the e-commerce business situation as “good” and 36% as “satisfactory”. As manyas 72% predicted higher e-commerce revenues over the coming 12 months and said they would invest inthe sector.
The number of German consumers shopping online will rise by 1.1 million to 32.5 million thisyear, the BVH also predicted. The number of male online shoppers will rise to 17.5 million from 17million while the number of women buying online will increase to 15 million from 14.4 million lastyear.
According to a consumer survey commissioned by the association earlier this year, revenuesfrom online sales of goods in Germany are likely to grow about 15% this year to €15.4 billion, thusovertaking the traditional mail-order business.
A further €6.4 billion will be spent online purchasing digitalised products or services(files, tickets, travel, etc.), an 8.5% increase on last year. Total private e-commerce spending inGermany will thus rise about 13% to €21.8 billion this year from €19.3 billion in 2008.
About 53% of German distance sales revenues are expected to be generated online this yearcompared to 46.9% last year. The overall German distance selling market, covering traditionalmail-order and online sales, is likely to grow only 1.7% to €29.1 billion due to the decline inmail-order sales. This latter segment is expected to see a drop in revenues from €15.2 billion in2008 to €13.7 billion this year.
