Purchasing behaviour

: K-02 Purchases by German consumers in all shops in a year-on-year comparison © Deutsche Card Services GmbH

: K-03 Consumer activity in consumer countries from the rest of Europe in all shops © Deutsche Card Services GmbH

Consumer behaviour

The language barrier obviously prevents many international customers from making their purchases in German shops.
Consumers from countries outside Europe clearly prefer British to German shops.
Spain has become the third-largest e-commerce market in Europe, behind Germany and the UK.
The gap between the months with the highest and the lowest purchasing activity has narrowed.
European online merchants see their sales spread more equally across the year.
Due to the Christmas business, December remains the month with the highest sales.
Monday is the most popular day of the week in European e-commerce (preceding year: Tuesday).
A national quirk: Germans tend to look for online bargains on Sundays.
Most purchasing activities in the e-commerce strongholds Germany and UK take place between 8pm and 10pm (preceding year: 4pm and 6pm).
The core working hours (8pm to 6pm) remain very attractive, with a total share of more than 50%, but their share has remained unchanged.
The average transaction value was down from its record level in the preceding year, to EUR 65.35.
German online shoppers in particular were more reluctant and cautious during the crisis.
Women are clearly catching up in European e-commerce and conducted more than 40% of all online transactions for the first time since 2004.
In Germany, women already trigger more e-commerce transactions than men.
Generally speaking, women spend more per purchase than men (with Germany as an exception).