The retail trade in clothing and shoes in Germany achieved strong sales growth in 2022 compared to the previous year. However, the industry has not yet been able to make up for the considerable losses in the course of the Covid 19 pandemic. This emerges from current figures presented by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) on Tuesday.
Accordingly, sales of textiles, clothing, shoes and leather goods in Germany last year were nominally 30.4 percent above the level of 2021. In real terms – i.e. adjusted for the effects of price developments – they rose by 27.0 percent.
According to the Wiesbaden authority, this product category, which had suffered particularly badly in the previous year from the corona protection measures in force at the time, achieved the highest growth “of all retail sectors recorded”. Despite the race to catch up, it is still a long way from the pre-crisis level: Real sales of textiles, clothing, shoes and leather goods missed the 2019 level by 7.9 percent.
The Internet and mail order business has to accept considerable losses
Overall, sales in German retail in 2022 exceeded the previous year’s level by a nominal 7.8 percent and thus reached a new record level. However, the growth was only due to the high inflation: In real terms, sales fell slightly (-0.6 percent). This was not least due to the development in the trade in food, beverages and tobacco products (nominal +5.6 percent, real -4.6 percent) as well as in internet and mail order (nominal -3.6 percent, real -8.5 percent ).
In December, too, the textiles, clothing, shoes and leather goods sector fared significantly better than the other retail segments. The industry achieved a nominal increase in sales of 21.2 percent (real +15.4 percent) compared to the same month last year.
The total turnover of the German retail trade rose by a nominal 3.9 percent compared to December 2021, but in real terms it slipped by 6.6 percent. Even in the high phase of the Christmas business, the online and mail order business remained well behind the corresponding results of the previous year. Compared to December 2021, its sales shrank by 5.8 percent in nominal terms and by 12.0 percent in real terms.