German retailers are expected to increase their revenues by 1.2% year-on-year in the Christmas season, industry association HDE said on Thursday, thanks to booming online sales as well as furniture, home improvement and grocery stores.
HDE managing director, Stefan Genth, said, “For many retailers, the Christmas business is the busiest time of the year. Many industries such as the book trade, dealers with watches and jewellery or the toy trade have made more than a fifth of their annual turnover in the last two months."
Online sales are expected to rise by 19% to €17.5 billion in the November-December period, HDE added, while brick-and-mortar stores of clothing, perfume and toy retailers are impacted by lower footfall due to the pandemic.
Genth explained, "Retail in the city centres is allowed to open, but at the same time politicians are appealing to customers to stay at home. As a result, the businesses can no longer survive economically in view of the extremely declining customer footfall in many places."
For 2020, the association expects total retail revenues to increase by 1.5% to around €552 billion.