The majority of retail sectors have been struggling with massive sales losses since the beginning of 2020 due to the ongoing Corona pandemic and its effects. As a system-relevant sector, however, food retailing was one of the few winners of the crisis to increase its sales in 2020. This once again underscores the great importance of the food retail sector for the German retail industry and its clientele. However, growth is primarily limited to supermarkets* and large supermarkets** in Germany. This is shown by the latest data in the current statistics compendium EHI 2021.
Double-digit sales growth
The clearest winners of the crisis are the German supermarkets* and large supermarkets**. Their average sales growth in the last ten years before the Corona pandemic was around 3 percent. Last year, on the other hand, supermarkets enjoyed a significant increase in sales of 13.1 percent. Their total sales in 2020 were 57.9 billion euros. Sales growth was also in the double digits (11.8 percent) for large supermarkets, whose total sales last year amounted to approximately 19 billion euros. "The main reason for this development was the systemic relevance of the food sector, which saved stores from lockdowns. But also the changed shopping behavior against the background of the pandemic favored the positive development of the industry," EHI retail expert Marco Atzberger explains.
Sales shares gained
This development is also reflected in the sales shares of grocery stores in Germany. For example, supermarkets increased their share of sales by 1.4 percentage points compared to the previous year and thus generated 32.2 percent of the total food retail sales in Germany of 179.8 billion euros last year. The sales share of large supermarkets was 10.6 percent in 2020, up 0.4 percentage points compared to 2019. In contrast, the sales share of discount grocery stores fell slightly by 1.1 percentage points to a share of 43.8 percent in 2020 as a result.
Graphic: EHI Retail Institute
Definitions supermarkets
*Supermarket: retail store with a sales area of between 400 and 2,500 m2, offering a full range of food and non-food I items and a small sales area share of non-food II.
**Large supermarket: Retail store with a sales area between 2,500 and 5,000 m2 that has a full food assortment and carries non-food I and non-food II items.
For more information:
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