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Parcel delivery service in Munich before Christmas: a third more sales online than before the pandemic
Photo:
Sven Hoppe / dpa
The retailers in Germany posted a record turnover last year despite corona restrictions.
Income grew by 3.1 percent compared to the previous record year 2020, as stated in a statement from the Federal Statistical Office based on the available results for the first eleven months.
Adjusted for price, this was an increase of 0.9 percent.
However, things did not go well everywhere.
For example, the retail trade with textiles, clothing, shoes and leather goods also had to accept a drop in sales in the second year of the corona crisis.
In contrast, the booming online retail business once again grew double-digit.
It is true that in November the Internet was not as good as it was on the Internet, despite discount campaigns such as “Black Friday” and “Cyber Monday” - the Internet and mail order business recorded a real drop in sales of 3.1 percent compared to the previous month.
Overall, however, online sales in the industry last year were 30.3 percent above the level of February 2020.
Consumers are less impressed by the new corona wave
The dealers were recently burdened by stricter corona rules.
With the exception of shops for daily needs such as supermarkets and drugstores, only those who have been vaccinated or recovered (2G) have been allowed to enter the shops in the past few weeks due to the fourth wave of pandemics.
In many places, dealers are taking legal action against it.
In addition, the industry is plagued by delivery problems.
In the high-volume period before Christmas, of all times, almost 82 percent of retailers complained that they could not offer all products.
Electronic household appliances and entertainment electronics were particularly scarce.
Nevertheless, at the beginning of the Christmas business it was enough to increase sales: In November, retailers took 0.6 percent more in real terms than in the previous month.
Economists had expected a decline of 0.5 percent here.
"The violent corona wave and the high rate of inflation did not affect consumers as much as they thought," said Alexander Krüger, chief economist at the private bank Hauck Aufhäuser Lampe.
apr / Reuters
