These are the 23 most important marketplaces for selling to Germany!
The German e-commerce market reached a GMV of €85.4 billion in 2023, one percent more than in the previous year. This makes Germany the largest e-commerce market in Europe. Eighty-two percent of the population regularly shop online, with fashion, electronics, and hobby & leisure being the strongest categories. The top five online stores are Amazon, Otto, Zalando, MediaMarkt and Ikea.
Online retail in Germany is heavily dominated by marketplaces: 54% of total online sales are generated via marketplaces. Amazon penetration, as measured by traffic, is a solid 82 percent, which means that eight out of ten online users have been to Amazon at least once a month. And these are reliable figures, having been published by Amazon itself. A look at the Marketplace Country Quadrant Germany is therefore particularly worthwhile.
The generalists in the Marketplace Country Quadrant Germany
- This large marketplace share is in turn heavily dominated by a single player, namely Amazon. There is hardly a customer who can avoid the platform in almost every category – except perhaps for fashion.
- Second place goes to eBay, a veteran of the German marketplace landscape. Otto, Germany’s largest online retailer, and Kaufland also play an important role in the German market.
- And on the sidelines, Temu is increasingly getting ready: The Chinese platform is not yet as strong in Germany as it is in other European countries, but it is definitely gaining traction.
The leading marketplaces in the 6 categories
In addition to the generalist market leaders, we often see an important category champion in our Marketplace Country Quadrant Germany:
- In Electronics, this is Media-Markt, for example. In the Fashion category it is Zalando, in Home & Living it is Wayfair. Redcare Pharmacy dominates the Beauty & Care category.
- Behind them, the relevance of the other marketplaces drops rapidly – so much so that in the new version of the marketplace quadrant, we actually only list three marketplaces per category in Germany. Agreeing on five marketplaces that we consider truly “relevant” for each category was too difficult.
- The German DIY & Garden category is still at a development stage. The three DIY store operators in the overview have only recently opened their marketplaces and are still in the process of expanding their business. However, in November, another interesting German player, Zooplus, will also enter the marketplace business.