A year ago, German retail chain Bauhaus launched its online marketplace. Since then, it has partnered with 100 sellers. As a result, they have added almost 100,000 new items to the assortment. “The real work began after the products went live”, said Johannes Wechsler, Chief Digital Officer at the company.
Swiss online store Galaxus reached a revenue of 2.5 billion euros (2.3 Swiss francs) by the end of 2025. As a result, it has overtaken Zalando in the ranking of the biggest online stores in Switzerland. Zalando’s growth has stagnated, while Galaxus’ growth has accelerated quickly.
The DACH ecommerce market is expected to continue its steady growth, with annual increases ranging from 3 to 6 percent. The impact of Asian marketplaces is becoming increasingly evident across all three markets. In Austria, their share of ecommerce spending has already surpassed 10 percent.
Online spending in Central Europe is expected to grow by 8 percent this year, with a similar growth rate forecast for next year. The increase is mainly driven by existing online shoppers placing orders more frequently.
Fifty percent of consumers in Europe say that they use instalment payments or pay-later services. The majority of them do this several times a year. The use of delayed paying is a lot less popular in Switzerland, where only a quarter of respondents said that they use it while shopping online.
Popular cashback marketplace OnBuy is rolling out in eight new markets. This brings the total of the company’s footprint to 21 European countries. The expansion follows strong performance, with an increase of 152 percent in quarterly sales last year.
Digitec Galaxus has had a strong year, with sales across its platforms up by 17 percent. This growth is partly driven by the addition of half a million new shoppers, bringing the total customer base to around 5 million. The Swiss ecommerce giant also outperformed the market in EU countries.
Return rates of online orders are an issue for many sellers. In the online fashion sector in the DACH countries, 87.7 percent of sellers report return rates of up to 50 percent. Around 80 percent of online sellers in the region do not expect that return rates will improve in the next three years.
Compared to September 2024, online sales in Switzerland have shown a cumulative increase of 9 percent up to and including the third quarter of this year. And over the first half of the year, ecommerce increased 8 percent. That is a much stronger growth than over the course of 2024.
The trading volume of MediaMarkt's marketplace was 90 percent higher than in the same quarter last year. The platform is contributing to the improved profitability of parent company Ceconomy. The marketplace will soon launch in Turkey, with Switzerland and Hungary next in line.
Last year, online fashion sales decreased 7 percent in Switzerland, compared to 2023. The total online revenue for fashion came to around 2.4 billion euros in the country. The online share of the fashion market in Switzerland was around 30 percent.
Compared to other German-speaking countries, Swiss consumers shop online less frequently. Just 18 percent of them shop online at least once a week. In Germany, for example, that share comes to 28 percent.
Smaller online businesses in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland are not benefiting from the restored growth in online spending. On the contrary, their revenue is decreasing. “It is becoming increasingly difficult for smaller online stores to maintain their position in the market.”
Between 2023 and last year, Zalando’s online sales revenue in Switzerland has increased slightly. It remains the biggest online retailer in the country. With its current online growth, it is expected that Galaxus will take over first place during this year.
Online consumer spending in Switzerland increased by 3.5 percent last year, while brick-and-mortar retail saw a slight decline of 0.2 percent. As in many other countries, the share of online sales within total retail continues to rise.