BERLIN, May 12 (Xinhua) -- E-commerce sales in Germany in April reached 6.8 billion euros, up 17.9 percent year on year, the German E-Commerce and Distance Selling Trade Association (bevh) announced on Tuesday.
German online retailers were able to "catch up significantly" on the decline in sales recorded in the previous month due to the coronavirus crisis, bevh noted. In March, e-commerce had still recorded a demand slump of around 18 percent compared to last year.
The largest growth was recorded in online food trade, where sales increased by 126.8 percent compared to April of the previous year, according to bevh.
Online trade of pharmaceuticals in Germany also rose sharply year on year, with a plus in sales of 86.5 percent, while drugstore goods recorded a plus of 72.8 percent.
"The enormous increases in the daily consumer goods clearly show that consumers in Germany appreciate and use online trade as a reliable supplier, especially during such a crisis," said bevh president Gero Furchheim.
In April, e-commerce sales for durable and costlier products, such as cars, motorcycles and accessories as well as jewelry and watches, were however significantly below last year's level, with minus 44 and minus 25.2 percent respectively, according to the association.
"The road to new normality is still long and the pandemic is far from over," added Furchheim. Enditem
