After the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the demand for these products in Germany has increased

It is undeniable that the Russian-Ukrainian war has affected e-commerce in Europe to varying degrees. Although e-commerce sales in Germany have remained at a high level since the war, data shows that Germany's sales in the second quarter of this year fell by 9.6% compared with the same period last year. However, total sales were 8% higher than in 2020 and 25.8% higher than in 2019. In other words, 2021 is currently the peak of German e-commerce revenue.

Overall, although Germany's e-commerce revenue has declined, sales of many types of products are still on the rise. According to the German e-commerce association Bevh, after the war began, people's concerns were also reflected in the purchase of medicines online.

Since the war began on February 24, online drug sales in Germany have jumped by more than 40%, showing strong growth. As a result, in the first quarter of 2022, online drug sales increased by 23.5% to 407 million euros from 329 million euros in the same period last year.

And in the six weeks from the beginning of April to May 16, while sales of all goods in Germany's e-commerce fell by 6.7%, online sales of daily necessities, to which medicines belong, still increased by 4.1%.

At the end of the second quarter, Germany's overall e-commerce sales fell 9.6% year-on-year, but sales of pharmaceuticals continued to grow, with a year-on-year increase of 5.4%.

Bevh data shows that in addition to pharmaceutical products, the categories of products that saw year-on-year increases in online sales in Germany in the second quarter after the war include: large household appliances ( 6.1%), toys ( 5.1%), animal food ( 6.7%), and office supplies ( 0.2%), but the increases were only in the single digits. Bevh said that food, drugstore products, pet supplies, etc. were the categories least affected by the consumer environment.

In contrast, the declines in the second quarter were even greater for electronic products, books/e-books/media, DIY supplies and flowers, all of which fell by double digits. Among them, the decline in electronic products was the strongest at 19%, followed by a decline of 16.5% for books/e-books/media, a decline of 15.5% for DIY supplies and flowers, and even a decline of 11.1% for clothing and footwear.

Since 2018, Germany's total e-commerce sales have increased year by year. Data shows that in the past four years, the fourth quarter of each year is the peak period for Germany's annual e-commerce sales, and the second quarter usually has an increase in total sales compared to the first quarter. However, this year, the total sales in the second quarter were less than the first quarter, which is obviously affected by the consumption environment, and this impact is expected to continue for some time.

Because according to a survey conducted by Bevh, 62.5% of respondents currently hope to spend the same or more money as in the second quarter, which is 10% less than in the first quarter; 24.8% of respondents said they hope to spend less money online in the future, while this figure was only 18.4% in the first quarter.

After the Russian-Ukrainian War

German e-commerce

Demand growth