Contribution of German eCommerce to the German GNP in 2013-2017

Germany is the second largest e-commerce market in Europe. The German people are very familiar with online shopping; making them smart, savvy eConsumers with high expectations and highly cautious with online shopping where a typical customer reviews a store's terms and conditions, compares commodity prices etc.

Last year (2012), there was a notable growth in the German eCommerce revenues, something that can be attributed to the increasing use of mobile technologies such as smartphones and tablets in Germany, and to some extent by e-commerce marketing in social media networks such as Facebook. It is estimated that in that year, online shopping in Germany grew by 27 percent to reach a total volume of 27.6 billion euros ($37 billion), according to figures released by German mail order lobby group BVH with clothing making up the biggest share of Internet sales with revenue of more than 11 billion euros. Consumer electronics and books came in second and third with sales worth 4 and 2.6 billion euros respectively.

 eMarketer.com postulates that in Western Europe, about 179 million people aged fourteen and above will buy via digital channels in 2013. Around one in four of these will be German residents. This is good news for  the German eCommerce sector and will be one of the contributing factors as to why the German economy will likely remain one of the most stable in Europe. On the contrary, German brick and mortar retailers will continue to feel the pinch of this expanding eBusiness, as one out of ten purchases is expected to be done via e-commerce platforms creating a need for them to make online ventures.

ECO, the association of German Internet Industry, estimates that Germany's Gross National Product, GNP, will be related to e-commerce by 2017. This is one of the findings of a survey carried out by eco. The association defines e-commerce as any online activity having to do with business procedures such as ordering, paying, or complaining, online retail, cloud computing, or electronic administration – regardless of the technical platform the transaction is performed on (PC, tablet, or smartphone).
This means that e-commerce already contributes to the GNP with 37 percent, a significant contribution that is set to increase as mCommerce will increase with increased spread in mobile technology.