German Online Shopping Trends for 2026
Discover German online shopping trends for 2026, including market value forecasts and key growth drivers like AI and mobile commerce.
Germany’s e-commerce market returned to steady growth in 2025. Online retail revenue reached €92.3 billion, while the forecast for 2026 points to €96.3 billion. Growth now comes from more than fashion and electronics. Groceries, health products, marketplaces, mobile shopping and AI-assisted product research are reshaping the market.
Most market values in this guide come from the HDE Online-Monitor 2026. HDE measures B2C online sales of new physical and digital goods in Germany. Values are net of VAT and adjusted for returns. Services, travel, tickets, streaming and online rentals are excluded. Secondhand revenue is reported separately. Shopper adoption figures come from Destatis, while the payment section uses Deutsche Bundesbank data. Figures from different sources should not be treated as directly interchangeable because their market definitions differ.
Germany’s online market added €3.5 billion in net revenue during 2025. Its growth rate once again exceeded offline retail growth, although physical stores still account for most German retail spending.
German online retail generated €92.3 billion in net revenue during 2025, up from €88.8 billion in 2024. HDE expects the market to grow another 4.3% in 2026, taking revenue to €96.3 billion. The market has now recovered from the post-pandemic decline recorded in 2022. Revenue remains €19.3 billion above its 2020 level.
The sharp increases of 2020 and 2021 were exceptional. Germany has now moved into a slower but more stable phase of e-commerce growth.
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| Year | Online revenue | Annual change | Change in revenue |
| 2020 | €73.0 billion | 23.2% | €13.8 billion |
| 2021 | €87.0 billion | 19.1% | €14.0 billion |
| 2022 | €84.7 billion | -2.6% | -€2.3 billion |
| 2023 | €85.5 billion | 1.0% | €0.8 billion |
| 2024 | €88.8 billion | 3.8% | €3.3 billion |
| 2025 | €92.3 billion | 3.9% | €3.5 billion |
| 2026 forecast | €96.3 billion | 4.3% | Approx. €4.0 billion |
Online sales grew 3.9% in 2025, compared with 2.9% for offline retail. The online share of the wider German retail market increased only slightly, from 13.4% to 13.5%. The figure changes considerably across categories. Non-food products have a far higher online share than food products. In 2025, 19.1% of non-food spending took place online, compared with 3.2% of food spending.
Category performance
Which product categories generate the most online revenue? Fashion remains Germany’s largest online retail category. It generated €21.2 billion in 2025, equal to 22.9% of online revenue. Consumer electronics followed with €19.7 billion. Together, fashion and electronics represented 44.2% of the market, down from 44.7% a year earlier. The change reflects faster growth in groceries, health products and other everyday categories.
HDE calculates online spend per online shopper aged 14 or older. Offline spend is calculated across the general population aged 14 or older, so the two columns have different population bases. FMCG was the only major category in the comparison to grow strongly in both channels. Electronics, fashion, home products and leisure goods increased online while losing revenue offline.
German e-commerce revenue by category
| Category | Online revenue in 2025 | Share of online market | Growth in 2025 |
| Fashion and accessories | €21.2bn | 22.9% | 2.8% |
| Consumer electronics and electrical goods | €19.7bn | 21.3% | 2.9% |
| Leisure and hobbies | €14.1bn | 15.3% | 2.9% |
| Fast-moving consumer goods | €13.4bn | 14.5% | 10.4% |
| Home and furnishings | €8.1bn | 8.8% | 1.8% |
| Health and wellness | €6.1bn | 6.6% | 4.9% |
| DIY and garden | €3.3bn | 3.6% | 2.1% |
| Jewellery and watches | €1.4bn | 1.6% | 3.1% |
| Office supplies and stationery | €1.4bn | 1.5% | 2.4% |
| Other categories | €3.6bn | 3.9% | Not separately reported |
| Total | €92.3bn | 100% | 3.9% |
FMCG was the clear outlier, growing more than 2.5 times faster than the online market average. Health and wellness recorded the second-highest category growth at 4.9%. A category’s share of total online revenue is not the same as its online penetration. Electronics and fashion have the highest online shares within their respective markets. FMCG contributes €13.4 billion to e-commerce, but online sales still represent only 4.9% of total FMCG spending.
| Category | Online share in 2024 | Online share in 2025 | Change |
| Consumer electronics | 43.2% | 45.1% | +1.9 pp |
| Fashion and accessories | 43.1% | 44.2% | +1.1 pp |
| Office supplies and stationery | 37.3% | 38.9% | +1.6 pp |
| Jewellery and watches | 36.7% | 37.6% | +0.9 pp |
| Leisure and hobbies | 23.8% | 24.3% | +0.5 pp |
| Home and furnishings | 20.9% | 21.6% | +0.7 pp |
| Health and wellness | 17.2% | 17.5% | +0.3 pp |
| DIY and garden | 7.4% | 7.6% | +0.2 pp |
| FMCG | 4.6% | 4.9% | +0.3 pp |
Electronics and fashion are mature online categories. Groceries and health products have much more room to move online, even when their percentage growth is already higher. Some categories already have high online penetration but relatively little growth. Others are growing rapidly from a small base.
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Emerging and mature online product groups
| Product group | Online share in 2025 | Average annual growth, 2023–2025 | Market position |
| Drugstore goods | 4.1% | 13.2% | Low penetration, high growth |
| Food and delicacies | 2.7% | 10.7% | Low penetration, high growth |
| Medical supplies | 5.0% | 8.1% | Low penetration, high growth |
| Children’s clothing | 55.5% | 2.6% | High penetration, slower growth |
| Musical instruments | 54.0% | 2.4% | High penetration, slower growth |
| Photography products | 51.1% | 2.2% | High penetration, slower growth |
| Leather goods and accessories | 41.6% | 1.0% | Mature online category |
| Shoes | 37.1% | -0.7% | High penetration, declining |
The contrast is important for retailers. A low online share does not mean low demand. In groceries, drugstore goods and medical supplies, it may point to a market still shifting from physical to digital purchasing.
Marketplace dominance
How important are marketplaces in German e-commerce? Marketplaces accounted for 56.7% of German online retail revenue in 2025. Marketplace sales increased 5.9%, while the remaining online market grew 0.9%. Sales completed through marketplaces grew more quickly than sales attributed to any individual retailer format.
Format
| Revenue growth in 2025 | Sales through marketplaces | Retailers with physical-store origins | Online-first retailers | Manufacturers selling directly online |
| 5.4% | 4.0% | 3.9% | 3.8% |
The categories overlap in HDE’s framework. A physical retailer can sell through its own shop and a marketplace, while marketplace revenue is assigned to the seller’s original retail format. The market shares have changed very little since 2020. Online-first businesses still generate more than half of non-marketplace e-commerce revenue.
Amazon and marketplace share of German online retail
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| Channel | 2024 | 2025 |
| Amazon.de direct retail | 17.2% | 17.2% |
| Amazon.de Marketplace | 45.5% | 46.1% |
| Other marketplaces | 10.6% | 10.8% |
| Remaining online retail | 26.7% | 25.9% |
| All marketplaces | 56.1% | 56.7% |
HDE’s institutional Amazon view includes some sales from other European countries, so the 63.3% combined Amazon figure should not be interpreted as a simple domestic market-share calculation. The report uses it to illustrate Amazon’s scale within the German online retail ecosystem.
Physical retailers and adoption
Are physical retailers still selling online? Forty per cent of German physical retailers sold goods online in 2025. The share was unchanged from 2024 but below its 45% peak in 2020. Among physical retailers with online sales, 58% operated their own online shop. The figure fell from 66% in 2024, suggesting that some retailers are relying more heavily on external platforms or withdrawing from direct e-commerce.
The number of retailers using e-commerce has increased only modestly since 2010. The mix of channels has changed more than the total adoption rate.
| Year | Physical retailers selling online | Online sellers using their own shop |
| 2010 | 33% | 77% |
| 2018 | 40% | 63% |
| 2020 | 45% | 62% |
| 2022 | 44% | 65% |
| 2024 | 40% | 66% |
| 2025 | 40% | 58% |
Destatis reports that 86% of people aged 16 to 74 had purchased something online at least once in 2025. Seventy per cent had bought online within the previous three months. The adoption rate is highest among people aged 25 to 44. Older shoppers are less active, but their participation continues to increase. HDE found that the number of online shoppers aged over 55 grew 3.1% in 2025, compared with 1.2% growth across all shoppers.
The steady expansion of digital purchasing across the German population suggests that the market has passed the early adoption phase. As younger demographics continue to rely on digital channels, the remaining growth will likely come from deepening engagement with established categories and new entrants capturing share in under-served areas.
