eCommerce market in Germany

Germany is the 6th largest market for eCommerce with a predicted revenue of US$110,805.6 million by 2024, placing it ahead of Japan. Revenue is expected to show a compound annual growth rate (CAGR 2024-2028) of 4.5%, resulting in a projected market volume of US$132,113.9 million by 2028. With an expected increase of 2.5% in 2024, the German eCommerce market contributed to the worldwide growth rate of 7.4% in 2024. Like in Germany, global eCommerce sales are expected to increase over the next years. Seven markets are considered by ECDB within the German eCommerce market. Fashion is the largest market and accounts for 25.5% of the German eCommerce revenue. It is followed by Hobby & Leisure with 24.2%, Electronics with 21.3%, Furniture & Homeware with 9.7%, Care Products with 8.4%, Grocery with 5.7%, and DIY with the remaining 5.4%.

The online share refers to the proportion of the retail volume that is transacted via the Internet. It includes purchases via desktop PC, tablet or smartphone, both via website or app. Only retail of physical goods is taken into account. In the German retail market, the online share is 17.3% and will increase by an average of 5.5% to 21.4% by 2028.

The biggest player in the German eCommerce market is amazon.de. The store had a revenue of US$15,853.7 million in 2023. Store rankings include every store that generates revenue in Germany. These stores can either have a national focus and only sell in their main country or operate on a global scale. For this evaluation, only revenue created in Germany was considered.

The German eCommerce market in 2023 in terms of offered payment methods is fragmented and highly competitive with PayPal (E-wallets) covering the largest share with 93.1% of all online stores checked. Other offered payment methods in the German eCommerce market in 2023 are VISA (Cards) with 82.1%, Mastercard (Cards) with 82.0%, and Bank transfer/cash in advance (Bank transfer) with 77.4%. With 53.4% Sofortüberweisung (Bank transfer) still has a considerable market share amongst the offered payment methods compared to PayPal (E-wallets).

With 85.6% of all online retailers using DHL it is the dominating shipping service provider in the German eCommerce market in 2023. DPD follows at a distant second, utilized by 24.1% of online retailers. Other shipping service providers, including GLS, UPS (United Parcel Service), and Deutsche Post, are employed by a significantly smaller proportion of online retailers.

Although Shopware holds a commanding lead with 21.1% of online stores using the shop software solution, the German eCommerce market in 2023 remains vibrant and competitive. This is due to the presence of several other shop software solutions, including Magento, Shopify, JTL-Shop, and OXID EShop, which collectively hold a significant share of the market.