Digitec Galaxus gains 770,000 new customers in one year

Within such a short time, the two online stores Digitec and Galaxus have never gained so many customers as in the last twelve months since the outbreak of the Corona pandemic, according to the online retailer. From April 2020 to March 2021, a good 2.15 million private individuals and over 145,000 companies made purchases from the two online stores. A year earlier, there were still 1.4 million private individuals and 100,000 companies. This corresponds to growth of 54 and 45 percent respectively.

However, the more than 770,000 new customers do not explain the entire growth of the online retailer: its sales actually rose by 59 percent to CHF 1.83 billion in 2020. As a result, existing customers also shopped more frequently or more at Digitec and Galaxus. But is the Corona year a major exception, or have longstanding Digitec-Galaxus customers also been shopping in increasing numbers?

Packages by the piece

Sales figures from Digitec Galaxus show that the average customer buys more in the two online stores from year to year. For example, anyone who opened a customer account between January 1 and December 31, 2015 (2015 cohort) spent an average of 20 percent more after four years and 57 percent more after five years than in the first year.

"Due to the pandemic, online retail in Switzerland has leapfrogged the development of several years," Florian Teuteberg, CEO of Digitec Galaxus, is quoted as saying in the statement. "Quite a few consumers have discovered the benefits of online shopping for themselves in recent months, and many of them are likely to stick with it." Since 2015 and especially from 2018, Digitec Galaxus has also greatly expanded its range of products: Today, the online retailer carries more than 2.5 million products in its range.

Women are increasingly shopping online

The Corona jump is particularly clear among women: Typically, they spend less than half as much money at Digitec or Galaxus in their first year as a customer than the average customer. The obvious reason: men buy more gaming PCs, drones and other high-priced electronics. Women's spending also increases less than men's in subsequent years - except in the final year of the table below. This year covers at least part of the pandemic for many cohort members. Thus, with the pandemic, women's spending across all cohorts grows more than men's.

The growth in spending among women shows that they have recently been buying everyday items such as shampoo, pasta or coffee beans as well as less everyday products such as children's books, boxing gloves or gas grills much more frequently on the Internet. Lockdowns and social distancing recommendations are quickly identified as the cause. The sales of the online department store Galaxus then also grew more strongly than the sales of the IT and electronics specialist Digitec. "I assume that women will drive growth at Digitec Galaxus more strongly than men in the next few years," says Teuteberg.

In Teuteberg's view, Swiss online retailing still has huge potential: today, it has a Share of around 12 percent of total retail trade. If food is excluded, the figure is a few percent higher. "We expect more than half of our purchases in Switzerland to be made online in ten years, possibly sooner due to the pandemic," says Teuteberg. "We want to take the biggest slice of that and continue to be the leading shopping platforms in Switzerland."

But who is more important for Digitec Galaxus: the new customers or the existing ones? For Teuteberg, the case is clear: "Those who stay with us! If someone only buys from us once and then never again, we've done something wrong.