Germany · Germans buying online, last 12 months
Online Shoppers in Germany: Share of People Buying Online
As of 2025 Eurostat Next update: Annually, typically in spring for the previous survey year
The share of people in Germany who bought goods or services online in the past year, from the official EU survey on internet usage.
How many people in Germany shop online? 81.4% of people aged 16 to 74 in Germany bought goods or services online in the twelve months before the 2025 survey, compared with 77.9% a year earlier, according to Eurostat. Germany has been above the EU average in every survey year since 2020.
Key takeaways
- 81.4% of people aged 16 to 74 in Germany bought online in the twelve months before the 2025 survey, compared with 77.9% in the survey a year earlier.
- Germany has been above the EU average in every survey year since 2020, and with the EU's largest population it has the largest pool of online shoppers in the EU by headcount.
- Eurostat flags a break in the German series in 2021, so the fall from the 2020 value reflects a change in the survey as well as a change in behavior.
- With more than four in five adults already buying online, the share has little room left to grow, so online sales growth depends more and more on purchase frequency and share of wallet.
- Every EU member state runs the same survey with identical definitions, so Germany can be compared directly with the EU average or with neighboring markets such as Austria.
The data
| Period | Germans buying online, last 12 months |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 81.4% |
| 2024 | 77.9% |
| 2023 | 77.5% |
| 2022 | 76.2% |
| 2021 | 76.0% |
| 2020 | 82.6% |
What this means for e-commerce and DTC brands
For a brand selling into Germany, this is the size of the online-buying population you are competing for. With 81.4% of adults already buying online, nearly everyone who will shop online already does, so paid channels are fighting for existing online shoppers rather than recruiting new ones. That shifts the growth question toward frequency, basket size, and category expansion, and it makes retention and repeat-purchase economics carry more of the plan. It also sets expectations for prospecting campaigns, because the untapped-audience story that works in lower-adoption markets does not apply here.
What this statistic does not tell you
The survey counts people who bought anything online at least once in twelve months, so it says nothing about how much or how often they buy. It covers individuals aged 16 to 74, which trims the oldest cohorts. As a survey it carries sampling uncertainty. The 2020 value predates a break in the German series and was collected under lockdown conditions, so read the trend from 2021 on. Comparisons before 2020 require the predecessor dataset with a different methodology.
Frequently asked questions
How many Germans shop online?
81.4% of people aged 16 to 74 in Germany bought goods or services online in the twelve months before the 2025 Eurostat survey, compared with 77.9% a year earlier. Online shoppers are a large majority of adults in Germany.
How does Germany compare with the EU average?
Germany has been above the EU average in every survey year since 2020. In the 2025 survey, 81.4 percent of people aged 16 to 74 in Germany had bought online against 73.6 percent across the EU, which put Germany seventh of the 27 member states. Ireland, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Czechia and Finland ranked higher, while Romania, Italy and Bulgaria ranked lowest.
Is online shopping in Germany still growing?
Yes. The share was 81.4% in 2025, against 77.9% a year earlier, and since the 2021 break in the series it has risen in every survey. With more than four in five adults already buying online, there is little room left for the share to grow, so growth in online sales depends more and more on people buying more often and spending more.
Why did the share fall in 2021?
The fall coincides with a change in the survey. Eurostat flags a break in the German series in 2021, so the 82.6% recorded in 2020, a lockdown year, cannot be compared directly with later values, and part of the drop is methodological. The series starts in 2020 because Eurostat redesigned the EU survey that year and publishes the current methodology as a separate dataset.
Why do other statistics report different figures for Germany?
Because they measure something else. This page counts people aged 16 to 74 whose last online purchase was within twelve months and divides them by all people of that age. Some Eurostat and Destatis releases divide by internet users only, which gives a higher figure for the same year, and industry surveys often use other age ranges or time windows. Check the denominator and the period before comparing numbers.
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