Pandemic trend is declining
Germans are shopping more offline again
December 21, 2023, 8:04 a.m
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The corona pandemic is massively fueling the online shopping boom. However, the peak seems to have been passed. According to a survey, people are now using the online shopping cart less often and are shopping more locally again.
Stores instead of online shops: The online shopping boom in Germany spurred by the corona pandemic is weakening, according to a survey. The proportion of those who do at least half of their shopping online fell from around a third (32 percent) in 2022 to 26 percent, said Postbank, which is part of the Deutsche Bank Group, based on answers from 3,038 adults in August current year. However, the proportion is still higher than in 2019 (24 percent), the year before the outbreak of the corona pandemic in Germany.
The average proportion of purchases made via the Internet fell for the second time in a row: from a high of 38 percent in 2021 to 35 percent in 2022 to 30 percent in the current year. In 2019 it was 29 percent.
“Shopping behavior is returning to normal after the end of the Corona restrictions, and the catch-up effect is playing into the hands of retail,” said Postbank’s head of digital sales, Thomas Brosch. “However, online shopping has become indispensable, especially for younger people.” According to the survey, in the group of 18 to 39 year olds, the proportion of those who do at least some of their shopping online is significantly higher at 37 percent than among those over 40 (26 percent).
Respondents against destruction of returns
Overall, around half of online shoppers have stated in the regularly conducted “Postbank Digital Study” for years that they only order products online that they are relatively certain they will not return. More than 80 percent have said for years that they would like it if online retailers were legally prohibited from destroying goods returned by customers. Because: Not all returns are resold, this is especially the case with clothing.
The EU Commission recently put a stop to this practice: Larger retailers will no longer be allowed to destroy unsold clothing in the European Union in the future. Small and micro-enterprises are exempt from this ban; a transition period of six years applies to medium-sized companies. In principle, the ban should be applied two years after the regulation comes into force.