Saturday 20th March 2021
A year of economy in lockdown
Last hope online shop
The pandemic has destroyed the life's work of thousands of entrepreneurs, destroyed and newly created assets on the stock exchanges, made millions of jobs unsafe and shook Germany's solid state finances – among other things. One year after the start of the previously unthinkable, a state-ordered shutdown of large parts of the economy, ntv.de draws a balance sheet in the spotlights.
The first episode was about millions of newbies to stocks. The second of the problematic absence of the bankruptcy wave. The third episode is about brick and mortar retailers hoping for last-minute digital rescue.
The stationary retailers suffer enormously from the Corona restrictions. A number of shops had to close nationwide for the second time in December 2020. Many businesses, especially small ones, fear for their existence. At the same time, online trading is booming during the crisis like never before. For many business owners it is now said: An online shop is urgently needed! But many stationary retailers are overwhelmed. This shows the demand for the range of digital coaches in North Rhine-Westphalia. In some cases, up to 400 interested parties take part in Matthias Uhlig and his colleagues' online seminars.
"Entering online trading is like starting a new company," says Uhlig ntv.de. The best way to do this is for companies that see an online shop not only as a temporary replacement during the lockdown, but for whom the entry into e-commerce is an extension of their business model. "It is very often the case that not all retailers manage to integrate the necessary processes that are necessary for a good online shop into their daily routine," says Uhlig. So far, retailers have often shied away from the high investments. "The professional implementation of an online shop starts in the middle four-digit range and ends in the six- to seven-digit range."
But many shops should not be able to avoid investing in an online shop without a clear opening strategy. The industry association HDE puts the daily loss of sales during the lockdown with the temporary store closings outside of the grocery trade at around 700 million euros across the industry. The stationary textile trade is particularly hard hit. At the beginning of the year, sales in the division plummeted by 77 percent compared to January 2020. In contrast, the online mail order business benefited significantly and generated 31.7 percent more sales than a year ago.
You can read more about retail compared to online trading for companies in the Corona crisis in the detailed coverage of ntv.de:
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