Retail will make record sales in 2021 despite Corona

Downtown

The city centers are getting full again – but the 2G restrictions in most stores are putting pressure on sales.

(Photo: dpa)

Berlin German retailers achieved record sales in 2021 despite Corona restrictions and delivery problems. Income grew by 3.1 percent compared to the previous record year 2020, as the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) estimated on Tuesday based on the available results for the first eleven months. Adjusted for prices (real), there was an increase of 0.9 percent.

However, things did not go well everywhere. For example, the retail trade with textiles, clothing, shoes and leather goods also had to accept a drop in sales in the second year of the Corona crisis. In contrast, the booming online business once again grew double-digit.

The dealers were recently burdened by stricter corona rules. With the exception of shops for daily needs such as supermarkets and drugstores, only those who have been vaccinated or recovered (2G) have been allowed to enter the shops in the past few weeks due to the fourth wave of corona. In addition, the industry is plagued by delivery problems: Ironically, in the high-turnover time before Christmas, almost 82 percent of retailers complained that they could not offer all products. Electronic household appliances and entertainment electronics were particularly scarce.

Nevertheless, at the beginning of the Christmas business, there was enough growth in sales: In November, retailers took 0.6 percent more in real terms than in the previous month. Economists polled by Reuters had expected a decline of 0.5 percent. “The violent corona wave and the high rate of inflation did not affect consumers as much as they thought,” said Alexander Krüger, chief economist of the private bank Hauck Aufhäuser Lampe.

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Despite discount campaigns such as “Black Friday” and “Cyber ​​Monday”, the Internet and mail order business saw a real drop in sales of 3.1 percent in November compared to the previous month. With an increase of 30.3 percent, sales in this industry are still well above the level of February 2020, the start of the corona pandemic in Germany.

More: These dealers are defying the consequences of the pandemic with new business models

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