The new normal: these days, we prefer to shop later in the day

Lockdown? Lifted! Masks? A thing of the past! Remote work? Optional! At least for now, Germany seems to have moved out of the pandemic. What’s remained are new habits. For example, many people have discovered how convenient and inexpensive shopping online is over the last two years. And established online shoppers are placing their orders later in the day. This was revealed by an analysis of all purchases at Galaxus from January to May of 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022.

In 2019, we made 15 out of 100 purchases between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. By 2020, the first months of the pandemic, that figure was already 17 out of 100, and by 2021 it was more than 20 per cent. This means that every fifth order on galaxus.de was placed after hours. In 2022, this proportion is still higher than in the years before Corona, at more than 19 out of 100 orders.

Many online shoppers have apparently become accustomed to shopping after hours. Marta Kwiatkowski Schenk of the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute think tank recently reminded us that for many, working from home eliminates the need to commute, thus changing our daily routine: «Shopping is also leisure time, and the pandemic has affected this rhythm.» Whereas before the pandemic we used our time on public transport for online shopping, some of these activities are now shifting to the late evening.

While the daily peak in Galaxus orders in 2019 and 2020 was still measured in the morning between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. respectively, the peak in 2021 was, for the first time, between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. (8.88 per cent of all orders during the day).

Quick shops before noon are also highly desired

Possibly in order to have more time for lunch or other activities, many Germans have recently started to do their online shopping more frequently just before midday. In 2019, the daily peak was still at 10 a.m., with 11 per cent of orders. By 2020, the peak had shifted to 11 a.m., and in 2021, orders were also placed more frequently at 11 and even 12 a.m. than at 10 a.m. In 2022, orders placed shortly before noon even account for the daily peak and exceed the share of evening orders.

The trend toward later online shopping goes hand in hand with the shift to mobile markets: in April 2022, for the first time ever, more Digitec Galaxus customers placed their order on their mobile than their PC.

The Swiss shop even later than the Germans

Swiss customers of galaxus.ch and digitec.ch shop even later than Germans. For the Swiss, their shopping peak has recently been after 9 p.m. In the past, they preferred to shop just before closing time. All data from Switzerland can be found on galaxus.ch here.

Images (further images on request):
Times of Day for 2019 vs. 2022
Total times of day 2019-2022
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