According to the data from Die Bundesverband E-Commerce und Versandhandel e.V., the eCommerce sales in Germany show the most substantial growth in the third quarter since 2017.
Traditionally the third quarter has the lowest level of the sales through the year. Despite that, German eCommerce sales from July to October grew significantly by almost 15 percent to 22,194 billion euros. This is the highest growth in the five years, as shown in the table:
| Term | Goods sales (billion euros) | Sales growth in %, compared to the same period of the previous year |
| 3rd quarter of 2017 | 13,617 | +9,0 |
| 3rd quarter of 2018 | 15,199 | +11,6 |
| 3rd quarter of 2019 | 17,063 | +12,3 |
| 3rd quarter of 2020 | 19,329 | +13,3 |
| 3rd quarter of 2021 | 22,194 | +14,8 |
This is unusual, taking into account the gradual slowing down of the pandemic. Despite more abilities to make orders offline, people still keep purchasing more and more through the internet. Overal growth from January to September 2021 inclusive is also incredible and is +23,2%
Another surprising change is multichannel retail growth which is 21,2% in the third quarter, reaching a total of 3,502 million. The customers still prefer to buy online even though the shops are opened now. Total eCommerce sales in the third quarter divided by the types are in the table below:
| Consignor type | Total sales (million euros) | Change compared to the third quarter of 2020 |
| Multichannel | 3,502 | +21,2% |
| Online trade | 6,928 | +11,5% |
| Online marketplaces | 10,672 | +15,3% |
| Manufacturer/D2C | 880 | +20,5% |
| Teleshopping | 185 | -16,6% |
| Others | 28 | +22,7% |
