Despite a ray of hope on the first weekend in Advent, the Christmas business for the German retail trade has been sluggish so far.

The majority of companies are dissatisfied with the sales development in the last week of November, while almost a third of those surveyed are satisfied with the sales, as the German Retail Association (HDE) explained on Sunday in a survey of 400 companies.

"The Christmas business is under the impact of the energy crisis," said HDE CEO Stefan Genth.

The industry is feeling the uncertainty of consumers.

"However, a significant upturn in business can also be observed on the first weekend in Advent."

Things were going better for trading companies in the consumer electronics, cosmetics and food sectors.

The most popular products included smartphones, Christmas decorations, sweaters and knitwear, jewelery and vouchers.

The HDE sees one reason for the mixed course of the last week of November in the low customer frequencies, which collapsed with the pandemic.

"To date, the number of visitors has not recovered," emphasized Genth.

With a view to the time up to the turn of the year, 20 percent of those surveyed are confident.

"November and December are traditionally the months with the highest sales in retail - many retailers depend on successful Christmas business," explained Genth.

The HDE expects total sales of more than 120 billion euros for November and December.

That would be a nominal plus of 5.4 percent in the cash register compared to the previous year, but after deducting rising prices, adjusted for inflation, a real minus of four percent.

Despite the loss of purchasing power among customers as a result of high inflation, the HDE is banking on good deals related to discount campaigns such as “Black Friday” and “Cyber ​​Monday”.

The development of these bargain days is included in the survey, said an HDE spokeswoman.

However, there is not yet a concrete balance sheet for the discount campaigns.

The forecast for sales around the campaign days at the end of November was an increase of 22 percent to 5.7 billion euros.