Know the market: Germany
Do you want to conquer the German market with your webshop? Germans are among the largest online buyers in Europe. With over 83 million inhabitants, the German market is almost 5 times larger than the Dutch market and the total e-commerce turnover 2 times higher. In 2021, 12% of e-commerce in Germany was a purchase from abroad. Reason enough to investigate whether your webshop will also be a success in German. If you create the webshop, make sure that all the necessary information can be found on your website. The German customer wants to know everything about regulations, return options, and conditions before they make an online purchase. He also prefers quality and references over a cheap price. Therefore, adapt your keywords to this.
Top 3 foreign online purchases:
- China
- United Kingdom
- Austria
Top 3 product categories:
- Clothing & shoes (30%)
- Home & garden (15%)
- Sports & hobbies (14%)
Top 3 favorite payment methods:
- Digital wallet (Paypal, Allpay; 52%)
- Credit card (16%)
- On account (13%)
Figures: Crossborder e-commerce shopper research conducted by the International Postal Cooperation (IPC)
Reliability & Privacy
Germans attach great value to reliability and seals of approval. With a seal of approval you show that an independent institution has approved your webshop and you increase the chances of a purchase by the German customer. These German webshop seals are the most common:
- TrustedShops: European quality mark for online stores that verifies whether an online store respects the rights of customers.
- TÜV-SÜD Geprüft S@fershopping: specific German quality mark in which a German recognizes quality.
- EHI GeprüfterOnline-shop: seal of approval from EHI, the best known trade organization in Germany.
- Datenschutz-Gütesiegel ips: assesses mainly on data security and data protection.
Online privacy is also highly valued in Germany. German legislation on privacy, imprint (Impressum), copywriting, data protection and data storage is much stricter than in the Netherlands. A Datenschutzerklärung is also mandatory if you process personal data on your website. This states, for example, how and why you collect customer data. You also indicate how your customer can unsubscribe from, for example, a newsletter. Display this statement visibly on your webshop, such as at the top or bottom of your homepage.