Online shopping takes up more space in retail spending than it did before Covid

Online retail spending made up a bigger share of total retail spending over the past 12 months compared to 2019. However, in-store retail spending still accounted for around 3/4 of total retail spending over the past year.
We observe that a bigger share of spending stems from online trade for most types of goods post Covid. Furniture is the consumption group where there has been the biggest shift from in-store spending to online spending.
All age groups have increased their share of online spending over the past 12 months compared to 2019.

Danske Research Team Danske Bank A/S

Danish card data suggests that a bigger share of retail spending took place online over the past 12 months compared to 2019. That said the vast majority of retail trade still takes place in physical stores.

Over the past 12 months 24 percent of retail spending took place online compared to 18.5 percent before Covid in 2019 (see Chart 1). Online consumption shares peaked during the second lockdown in the first months of 2021 (see Chart 2). This is not surprising due to the large-scale lockdowns in 2021, where more retail stores had to remain closed than the first lockdown in 2020. Since data only dates back to 2019, we cannot reject that the increased online spending share is a part of a trend development stemming back from already before Covid.

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Author

Danske Research Team

Danske Bank A/S

Research is part of Danske Bank Markets and operate as Danske Bank's research department. The department monitors financial markets and economic trends of relevance to Danske Bank Markets and its clients.

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