In the United States, Christmas business is traditionally opened on the Friday after Thanksgiving with Black Friday. A few years ago, this tradition spread across the Atlantic to Germany. In recent years, online trading has introduced Cyber Monday for online business on the following Monday.
Many Germans use the two sales days as an opportunity to buy Christmas gifts. Germans are most likely to use clothing (47 percent), consumer electronics (40 percent) and shoes (30 percent), according to a survey by Statista.
However, sales days do not yet have the same status in this country as in the USA. While half of American Americans in a poll said they wanted to shop online on Black Friday or Cyber Monday, 37 percent in Germany did. In stationary retail too, more Americans are willing to spend money than Germans.
Internet Week 2021: Retail Association forecasts sales of around €4.9 billion
The inclination to consume among Germans has recently stabilized. This is evidenced by the German Retail Association’s (HDE) consumption scale, which was calculated for HDE by the Handelsblatt Research Institute (HRI). The indicator is currently lower than in the summer, but higher than the long periods of the epidemic. Especially in times when connectivity was restricted, the Germans were reluctant to buy.
Despite the partial shutdown in the fall of 2020, Germans spent €3.8 billion in online retail alone during Internet Week. Even the German Retail Consortium (HDE) expects sales of around 4.9 billion euros this year. This corresponds to an increase of 27 percent over the previous year.
