Online Grocery Series: Germany – Playing Catch-Up

Executive Summary

This is the fourth in our series of reports analyzing online grocery markets around the world.

• Germany lags other markets in grocery e-commerce. Online grocery sales in German accounted for only 1.2% of total grocery sales as of June 2016, according to Kantar Worldpanel, much lower than in both France and the UK. The strong presence of discounters, which traditionally do not sell online, the high density of smaller food stores and the reluctance of German shoppers to pay by credit card are the main factors that have slowed down the development of grocery e-commerce in the country.
• The number of shoppers buying groceries online in Germany has been increasing. According to an IfD Allensbach survey, the number of respondents that claim to have purchased food or beverage online increased by 1.2 million over 2013-15.
• Amazon is expanding rapidly into grocery e-commerce in Germany. Amazon Pantry was launched at the end of 2015, and many industry observers believe that AmazonFresh may also enter the market soon, although this has yet to be confirmed by the company. Domestic players are responding rapidly to Amazon’s expansion into grocery with their own e-commerce initiatives. All the main domestic brick-and-mortar grocery retailers have started selling online.  As a result, the online grocery sector in Germany is expected to grow much faster than that of its more mature neighboring countries in the next few years.