Online business booming before Christmas

Online commerce and mail order business have been so far booming in the run up to the Christmas holidays. This is the finding of a survey carried out by the German association for mail order business (bvh) which this organisation carried out among its members. This association expects that Germans will spend about 5.7 billion Euros (+3.7%) on goods and presents during the weeks before Christmas through mail ordering. Thus, the plus in turnover generated at the end of this year will probably be as much as the total turnover generated so far over the year 2008.

Particularly strong is the growth with regard to turnover generated online given that an ever increasing number of Germans order their presents over the internet. It is expected that turnover generated in November and December will amount to about 2.7 billion Euros which would correspond to a growth of 23%.

The reason for this development is to be found in the fact that the internet is becoming more and more attractive as a shopping platform. This year the goods which are in particular high demand are books, CDs, DVDs, consumer electronics, jewellery, toys and perfume. At the same time the number of online shops and service providers has further increased as compared to last year.

All market players in this field of mail order business combined generated about 28.6 billion Euros in turnover this year (+3.7 %). 46.9% (last year: 39.5%) of these sales were generated over the internet given that about half of all orders (51%, last year 48%) in the mail order business is made via mouse click over the internet this year. Furthermore, by the end of this year the number of online purchasers is expected to have increased to 31.44 million (last year: 29.37 million). GERMAN

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