The German retail sector is expecting a slight increase in sales this Christmas season compared with the previous year, the German Retail Association (HDE) said.
Revenue in November and December is expected to grow by 1.3% compared to the same period last year to a total of €121.4 billion ($130.08 billion), the HDE forecasts.
Sales are also expected to increase by 1.3% overall in 2024.
"The development of the Christmas business is in line with the full year 2024, sales will remain stable despite a difficult environment and many uncertainties," said HDE president Alexander von Preen at the presentation of the forecast in Berlin.
Christmas Budget
According to the HDE, Germans are planning to spend an average of €297 on Christmas presents, despite low consumer sentiment. This is two euro more than last year, according to a survey of 2,000 people by the HDE.
Almost 300 companies were surveyed, and 53% of non-food retailers fear that Christmas business will be worse or even significantly worse than in 2023.
"The importance of the last two months for the prosperity and adversity of the financial year is enormous in many retail sectors," von Preen said, noting that toy retailers generated almost a quarter of their annual sales during this period.
In the entire retail sector, November and December accounted for 18.5% of annual sales last year, said von Preen.
Earlier this week, HDE data revealed that consumer sentiment in the country had improved slightly in November, just ahead of the Christmas period.
Describing consumer sentiment for the coming weeks as ‘cautiously optimistic’, the HDE noted that it was impossible to state whether this improvement in sentiment is the beginning of a recovery.
