Largest German online retailers lose revenue

The growth of German online spending has come to an end. In the past calendar year, the combined revenue of the top thousand online retailers in Germany was lower than the previous year. There were revenue losses particularly high on the list.

This is evident in ‘E-Commerce-Market Germany 2023’, a study by EHI and ecommerceDB. For the fifteenth year in a row, they have mapped out the top players in German e-commerce.

Trend break

There is a trend break because the revenue of the top online sellers in Germany has never decreased before. In 2022, their total turnover amounted to 77.7 billion euros, as calculated by the researchers. This is 2.2 billion euros or 2.8 percent less than in 2021. Note: these are net amounts that have not been adjusted for price changes.

Top 10

Amazon remains by far the largest online seller in Germany. However, the market leader also saw a significant decrease in its revenue in the past year. Below is the complete top 10 with revenue change percentages listed.

MediaMarkt and sibling Saturn saw the steepest decline in revenue, allowing Zalando to take the third position. Apple had the strongest revenue growth within the top 10, where AboutYou appears for the first time.

MediaMarkt and Saturn saw the steepest decline in revenue

According to Lars Hofacker, head of the ecommerce research department at EHI, online shops that are lower in the rankings are performing relatively better than their larger competitors: “Some stores are facing significant revenue declines, or we will not see them in the ranking next year due to bankruptcies. However, smaller stores are showing strong relative growth.”

Pandemic

Overall, sales in the top thousand list are still approximately one and a half times higher than before the pandemic, Hofacker further notes. Adding: “For the current year, we initially expect the downward trend to continue.”