GfK: one-third of Germans will shop for fashion online by 2025

According to a recent study by German market research agency GfK, the share of online sales in retail will double in the next ten years. For fashion and lifestyle brands (menswear, womenswear, KOB, watches, jewelry and leather goods), this could mean a 30% rise in their online sales, said Gfk. The same should apply to sports and leisure categories, which include sportswear and childrenswear. 

Currently, only about one fifth of the revenue generated from online retail comes from both categories, which next to technology and media, are most relevant in online shopping.

In 2014, around 8.5% of Germany’s total retail sales were generated on the internet. The lowest performance in online sales came from the food sector including hygiene items, which accounted for only 1.2% of the total sales. Without this category, the share of online sales would have reached 15.3% of the total turnover during 2014, said GfK. 

Fashion and lifestyle sales accounted for 18.9% of 2014’s total retail sales,  reaching €9.7 billion, while sports and leisure goods bought online accounted for 20.2%, gaining €3.6 billion. The electronics and media sector accounted for 20.9%, reaching €15.1 billion and ranking higher than the fashion and sports categories - which according to GfK partially overlap.

On the other hand, GfK predicted a saturation of e-commerce sales, as this tendency is already recognizable in some categories. Unlike other sectors, the online shares of books and media grew only marginally from 2013 to 2014.

“With this forecast we are proving that e-commerce will not be end of store retail, as a natural saturation of the market is under way” said the GfK real estate expert and head of the study, Gerold Doplbauer.

Also, the shares of electronics and media goods bought online grew by 8% in the past year, down from the 20% to 30% yearly growth it had seen in the previous years.

Brick-and mortar retail has had to innovate and adapt through new concepts and omni-channel solutions in order to remain competitive against e-commerce. These factors have also had a significant impact on the dynamics of online sales.