In the third quarter of this year, sales in online retailing continued to rise. According to the latest figures from the German E-Commerce and Mail Order Association, consumers in Germany purchased goods worth 19.3 billion Euro online – 13.3 percent more than in the same quarter last year. Despite the reopening of many stores since July, many consumers continue to rely on online retailing – to the delight of the relevant service providers. As a result, online retailing now accounts for 98.4 percent of total sales in interactive commerce.
In concrete figures, the online volume of everyday goods has risen by 34 percent – bringing total sales to EUR 1.7 billion (Q3 2019: 1.3 billion). At EUR 633 million in the third quarter of 2020, the food product segment grew by more than half year-on-year (+52.9 percent). Germans also ordered their medicines online with above-average frequency. According to the BEVH, this product group grew from 220 million euros in the third quarter of 2019 to 312 million euros in the third quarter of this year.
A slight decline can be noted for pharmaceuticals compared to the second quarter of 2020. While the increase in the second quarter was 90 percent and 335 million euros in expenditure, it is now „only“ 42 percent. In summary, e-commerce sales since the beginning of the year have increased by 10.6 percent to 56 billion euros compared to the first nine months of 2019. As there was still a corona-induced slump in the first quarter – especially in the clothing sector – the growth accumulated to date in 2020 is still slightly below the average of previous years in percentage terms.
It should be noted, however, that the figures of the BEVH are not based on actual sales figures, but on a consumer study for which citizens are asked weekly about their spending behavior in online and mail order business over the past seven days.
Source: deutsche-apotheker-zeitung.de