Total revenue of online shops in the clothing segment in Germany 2018

In 2018, the most successful German clothing shops generated a collective e-commerce revenue of around 7.6 billion euros. As is clear from the graph at hand, figures have only grown during the specified time period. The data originates from a study conducted in cooperation with the EHI Retail Institute for the tenth time. The study, E-Commerce Market in Germany in 2019, lists the 1,000 largest German online shops for consumer goods (with a focus on B2C), based on online revenues generated in 2018.

E-commerce success story

Looking back at total B2C e-commerce revenue figures in Germany during the last two decades, the growth is not only immediately obvious, but also obviously impressive. If in 1999, twenty years ago, revenue amounted to 1.1 billion euros, the forecast for 2019 is almost 58 billion euros. Forecasts regarding the number of e-commerce users in Germany are optimistic as well, predicting 75.6 million in 2020 (this compared to 71.1 million recorded in 2017). Considering that the German population, based on recent figures, stands at almost 83 million people, both current e-commerce user numbers and expected ones are significant. The most popular online stores for buying clothing among German consumers, based on e-commerce net sales, were Zalando, Otto and H&M. Fashion is one of the leading segments in terms of e-commerce revenue growth in Germany, after electronics and media.

There’s always a way back

The rise of online shopping brings forth the fact that there is one experience which is a constant part of the process, namely consumers returning packages with items that they first bought, but then decided not to keep. The popularity of online shops among customers largely depends not only on their product selection and successful delivery services, but also clear and easy to follow return policies. In Europe, Germany is the country with the most returns completed, followed by the Netherlands and France. On average, the German online shopper also receives the most packages per year, compared to other European neighbors.