Today, the German Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) published new figures on Internet and mail-order sales for the current year. According to the results, between May and September 2021, sales went up by 8.8 percent points compared to the same period in 2020. Compared to before the Corona pandemic in 2019, online retail sales even increased by 36 percent points.
These are further details:
- After the Corona lockdown in early 2021, online retail sales increased by 8.8 percent points between May and September 2021 compared to 2020 and even by 36 percent points compared to the same period in 2019.
- Even before the Corona pandemic and on a full-year basis, there is a clear upward trend for online retail sales that had been emerging since 2015.
- In local retail, sales between May and September 2021 were roughly equal to the previous year's period, which was also heavily impacted by Corona restrictions.
- With an average growth rate of 1.9 percent between 2015 and 2019, retail sales in local shops were already noticeably lagging behind online retail even before the Corona pandemic.
Yannik Buhl, expert in the analysis of experimental data at Destatis, explained, "Since May 2021, activity in online stores has not reached the highs seen during the lockdown phases at the beginning of the pandemic and around the turn of 2020/2021. However, they are consistently above pre-crisis levels."
Source: Destatis
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