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Wiesbaden / Berlin (dpa) - Record plus despite the Corona crisis: In the Corona year 2020, retailers in Germany did well overall despite a historic drop in sales in December.

But there is a rift in the industry: while online retail is booming and grocery stores as well as furniture and home improvement stores are doing good business, the textile trade, for example, plunged deep into the crisis.

In the short term, neither the HDE trade association nor economists have any hope of improvement for the battered traders.

Because an end to the tightened restrictions in the fight against the pandemic, from which many shopkeepers are suffering, is not in sight.

According to calculations by the Federal Statistical Office, total sales in Germany for 2020 as a whole were up in real terms - i.e. adjusted for price increases - by 3.9 percent and nominally by 5.1 percent above the previous year's figure.

In the Internet and mail order business, real sales rose by 24.1 percent compared to the previous year, while the textile and shoe trade had to accept a minus of 23.4 percent.

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According to the HDE trade association, retail sales in Germany totaled 577.4 (previous year: 546.2) billion euros in 2020.

Online retail was able to increase its sales by around 21 percent to 71.5 billion euros, while stationary retailing recorded an increase of almost 4 percent to 505.9 billion euros.

The fashion trade lost almost a quarter.

"While stationary retail is suffering, new records are being set in online retail," says Thomas Gitzel, chief economist at VP Bank Group.

«The corona pandemic accelerated structural change.

For shops in the city center, this means: Without a hybrid business model between offline and online trading, survival will be difficult in the future. ”

Internet trading is "the winner of the pandemic," says Martin Moryson, chief economist Europe at Deutsche Bank fund subsidiary DWS.

“This trend will certainly not be reversed anytime soon.

The times for stationary retail will remain difficult even after the pandemic. "

At the end of the year, there was the biggest slump in sales for the entire retail sector in Germany since 1994 because of the renewed tightening of restrictions in the fight against the coronavirus compared to a previous month: In December, the industry achieved real sales of 9.6 percent and nominally 9.3 percent less than in November 2020. To combat the pandemic, public life was restricted again and the Christmas business, which is important for the industry, was partially canceled.

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Compared to December 2019, however, the industry was also up in total in December 2020: sales were up 1.5 percent in real terms and 2.6 percent in nominal terms compared to the same month last year.

However, this view also shows a weakening of the development: In November, sales rose by 5.0 percent in real terms year-on-year, and by 8.9 percent in October.

“Since the lockdown will probably continue for some time, no significantly better figures are to be expected for the time being,” says Commerzbank economist Ralph Solveen.

"Since stores were closed for the entire month in January - unlike in December - seasonally adjusted sales are likely to have fallen again, and there is no noticeable recovery in sight for February - and perhaps also for March."

The trade association HDE is also skeptical: "The second lockdown has an impact on consumer sentiment, which, according to the HDE consumption barometer, will continue to deteriorate over the next few months."

A surge in consumption “can only be expected with the relaxation of the corona measures, if consumers are positively convinced of a sustainable improvement in the economic situation and their own income situation,” predicts the HDE.

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"If the federal government does not adapt its support programs to the realities in the retail sector more resolutely than before, then the Corona crisis will drive many retail companies into bankruptcy," warned HDE Managing Director Stefan Genth.

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210201-99-252841 / 2

Federal Office for Retail December and 2020 as a whole

HDE consumption barometer February

Information on the HDE consumption barometer

HDE on the annual balance sheet