E-commerce turnover in DACH region exceeds €100 billion

Foreign media reported that the total e-commerce sales in the DACH region, which consists of Germany, Austria and Switzerland, exceeded 100 billion euros for the first time. So far, the German-dominated e-commerce market has generated more sales than any other language region in Europe.

In Germany, Austria and Switzerland, people place orders for an average of about €1,000 per year, according to the e-commerce associations there, which compare national data. This is much higher than in France, but much less than in the UK. In percentage terms, Switzerland had the strongest growth in the e-commerce market last year, up 27.9% compared to 2019, followed by Austria and Germany, which grew by 17.4% and 14.6% respectively. In all three markets, e-commerce's share of retail sales continues to grow steadily.

Last year, Swiss consumers bought goods worth 11.84 billion euros, which means that online sales in the Central European country have doubled in six years, while in 2020, Austria's e-commerce value exceeded 8.5 billion euros, and online turnover generated by mobile devices in Austria increased by more than 50%. Germany's online sales reached 83.3 billion euros last year.

In 2020, almost all countries were hit by the coronavirus pandemic, which also led to an increase in shopping on online shopping platforms. In Switzerland, sales of online grocery retail stores reached 1.5 billion euros, while in Germany the industry was worth 2.3 billion euros and in Austria it was only 63 million euros.

In Germany, the average person spends €33 on groceries online , while in the other two DACH countries the average is much higher: €175 in Switzerland and €78 in Austria. Meanwhile, the Swiss are particularly fond of groceries: the Swiss spend an average of €175 per person on groceries online.

Another interesting finding: The number of large online pure-play players in Switzerland continues to see high growth, even reaching 50%, and in Germany almost every penny was earned on online marketplaces and platforms last year.

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Cross-border e-commerce market

European Market Distribution