Advertorial feature
18 / 19
With the high street either shut down or harder to get to during the pandemic , consumer habits had to change . Moritz Sitte explores what this means for the future of shopping
How Covid is changing the way we shop
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Germany is Europe ’ s largest economy , but when it comes to online shopping , it ’ s the UK that takes the prize . More consumers bought goods or services online in the UK last year than anywhere else in the EU . Germany trailed in fifth . Moritz Sitte , joint manager of the Baillie Gifford Growth Trust and the European Fund , is well placed to compare both countries , having spent his pandemic between Munich and Edinburgh . He saw first-hand a big shift in his parents ’ generation ’ s attitude to shopping online . “ For Germans , sharing credit card details online is a big thing because you ’ re always distrustful of giving away too much information . But people are realising the convenience of having things delivered to your house . The habits being formed will stick .” The crisis has sped up the digital disruption of retail , but the changes in how people shop predate the pandemic and will persist once high streets and ‘ non-essential ’ shops reopen . E-commerce grew from 7 per cent of retailing in western Europe ( UK , Germany , France , the Netherlands , Italy and Spain ) in 2014 to 12 per cent in 2019 . By the end of 2020 , it ’ s expected to reach 16 per cent and continue growing steadily from there . Understandably , in the near future , ‘ bricks-and-clicks ’ retailers will fare better than those overly dependent on footfall . At the peak of the first lockdown in April , the Spanish company Inditex ( owner of the Zara and Massimo Dutti brands ) saw sales
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