The pre-Christmas business of the online mail order companies went much worse than in the previous year. In the months of October and November, sales in the industry fell by 16.8 percent compared to the same period last year, as the Federal Association of E-Commerce and Mail Order Germany (BEVH) announced on Monday in Berlin.
That is the result of a survey of 40,000 private individuals from Germany aged 14 and over. For the first time since the surveys began in 2014, there was a decline in this two-month period. However, sales are still 13.1 percent above the level of the pre-Corona year 2019.
The deputy BEVH general manager Martin Groß-Albenhausen pointed out that online sales were particularly high in the previous year due to the corona restrictions. Added to this is the general slump in consumption. A decline in sales compared to 2021 is also expected for the year as a whole.
The BEVH reported that the fashion industry was hit hardest by the decline. According to the study, sales in this sector fell by 28.1 percent in October and November compared to the same period of the previous year and were thus back at the level of 2019. The dispatch of everyday goods such as food, drugstore items and pet supplies held up better, the minus amounted to 8.4 percent. (dpa)