Ecommerce in Germany: Market Stats and Trends

A look at ecommerce trends in Germany, a market which is predicted to be worth €58.8bn in 2017.
Germany is the second largest ecommerce market in Europe, after the UK, with an online ‘population’ of 69.9m.

Market Size and Growth

The retail ecommerce market in Germany has grown steadily since 2012, and has enjoyed growth of around 10% per annum over the past four years.
Last year, retail ecommerce sales totalled €52.9bn, up 12.4% on 2015. German research firm BEVH predicts the market will grow 11.6% in 2017.

Top Product Categories Sold Online

Sales have been growing across the majority of product categories, with books & ebooks being one exception.
Clothing is the best selling product, with sales worth €11.16bn in 2016, while smaller categories such as food (up 26.7%), and home textiles (up 23.4%) growing more quickly.

Men are buying slightly more online than women, €27.1bn compared to €25.7bn, with sales growing quickly in several categories.
Electronics is the most popular category for male shoppers, while furniture and decor experienced the highest year on year growth.

Preferred Ecommerce Payment Methods

While credit or debit card payment is more often the preferred method of payment, German online shoppers have different preferences.
29% of German shoppers prefer to pay by invoice while 17% would opt for direct bank payment, options which few shoppers in France and the UK would prefer.

Mobile Commerce

The share of mobile traffic to ecommerce sites in Germany in 29.7%. By comparison, the same figure for the UK is 31.1%
In 2015, 32% of ecommerce sales were via mobile, with 16% of sales on tablets and 16% on smartphones.
Mobile commerce was worth €19.14bn in 2016, with emarketer predicting that it will grow to €23.5bn in 2017 and be worth €32bn by 2020.