Dusseldorf For two years, online trade in Germany grew like never before. But that’s over now, Ebay Germany boss Oliver Klinck warns in an interview with the Handelsblatt: “The corona boom is over, and the awakening for many online retailers is all the more clear.” Many retailers are currently experiencing a difficult time.
But it doesn’t affect everyone to the same extent. “The small traders in particular are suffering,” observes Klinck. This should also have an impact on Ebay, as the platform mainly lives from the fact that small retailers make good sales through it.
But that is becoming increasingly difficult. In a survey conducted by Statista on behalf of Ebay among almost 800 small and medium-sized online retailers, 53 percent of those surveyed stated that they were severely or very severely affected by the current macroeconomic challenges. The real challenges are still ahead of them.
Because the costs of online retailers are increasing massively. Almost every third of those surveyed is already using their reserves to pay for the rising electricity prices. 56 percent of the online retailers surveyed therefore want to increase their prices. That should cause demand to collapse further.
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Sales in e-commerce are already declining significantly. According to figures from the online trade association BEVH, they fell by an average of 9.6 percent in the second quarter. For clothing, the decline was 11.7 percent, for electronic items even 19 percent.
E-commerce: 77 percent of Germans want to save on online purchases
And the situation is likely to get even worse. According to a consumer survey by the financial service provider Mollie, 77 percent of Germans plan to save on their online purchases in the next twelve months because of the poor economic situation.
The dealer Kay Andrä, who sells high-quality sneakers with his Chemnitz company Solekitchen, also feels this. “Customers still used the summer for spending, but now we are feeling a clear reluctance among customers,” he reports. “Especially when it comes to high-priced shoes, customers think twice.”
This makes planning difficult for him. “I haven’t been as uncertain as I was when shopping for the coming season for a long time,” he says. “The risk is high, we don’t even know what costs we will have to face.”
At the same time, purchase prices have risen sharply. “With the next delivery, which comes in December, the identical products are sometimes up to 20 percent more expensive,” says Andrä. You have to think very carefully about which product can still be sold at these prices. In the end, he also took items out of the range.
Not all retailers are that cautious, says e-commerce expert Christian Salza: “Many small retailers lack the sensitivity to recognize how serious the situation is.” Salza was a board member at online retailers Home24 and Urbanara and is now with Berlin Brands Group jointly responsible for the takeover of smaller brand retailers. He therefore monitors this market very closely.
According to his assessment, the small traders are hit by a whole bundle of burdens: price increases by manufacturers, rising logistics costs and the unfavorable dollar exchange rate. At the same time, many had ordered large quantities despite the foreseeable fall in demand. Now the warehouses are full, the newly arriving goods cannot be stored and this causes high container parking fees in the ports.
This is a dangerous mixture: “The small traders are often sole proprietors who fight to the last for their companies,” says Salza. But many of the younger retailers in particular have not yet had any real experience with crises: “There are often no emergency plans.” This should also lead to an increasing number of insolvencies.
Ebay would like to prevent this if possible. Germany boss Klinck says: “It is very important for us to support and promote the small retailers, because this gives us the wide and deep range that distinguishes us from other marketplaces.”
Amazon and Ebay launch support programs for small online retailers
Ebay therefore has programs “with which we can support the dealers in these difficult times,” says Klinck. For example, there is the “Starter Starter” program, which was set up during the Corona period, in which new retailers do not have to pay any commission in the first few months and receive free advice on sales. “Retailers who take advantage of this help develop significantly better than others,” says Klinck.
Together with its partner Iwoca, Ebay has also developed a new financing solution for small retailers, which can use this to obtain short-term working capital loans of up to one million euros for interim financing. In view of the increased costs, retailers often lack the capital to buy new goods, explains the eBay manager. “And it is precisely this gap that we want to close.”
Competitor Amazon also offers similar programs. The Quickstart Online program, developed with the German Retail Association, is also aimed at smaller retailers who are new to e-commerce. Since early summer, Amazon has also been offering a new, flexible line of credit for sales partners together with ING Germany.
The small online retailers feel little support from the federal government in their difficult situation. In the Statista survey, 62 percent of the retailers surveyed rated the federal government’s work in relation to online trading as bad or even very bad.
A flood of regulations puts a strain on small traders
Kay Andrä from the Berlin Brands Group agrees with the criticism: “It would be nice if the government did not only provide relief packages in the private sector, but if politicians also thought more about business people.” would, he finds very problematic. “Capping the electricity prices for traders, for example, would be a great help,” says Andrä.
But what annoys online retailers most is that they are constantly being confronted with new regulations that are very difficult for them to implement. So the new electrical law is pending, with which the dealers expect extended take-back obligations, the packaging law also brings a packaging control obligation.
>> Read here: “Buy now, pay later”: EU plans stricter rules for online shopping on credit
Ebay Germany boss Klinck says: “The flood of regulations is now so high that it is hardly possible for smaller dealers or newcomers to online trading to understand how to behave in accordance with the law.” Most of the regulations are well intentioned, but these Implementation is so complicated that it can hardly be afforded by small retailers.
“Many are intended to create equal opportunities between small retailers and large platforms,” says Klinck. “But they do exactly the opposite.”
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