Nico Kotsapanajotou
22. Juni 2021
5 min
How have the top 50 e-commerce players in Germany performed in terms of SEO over the last 12 months during Corona?
Part of the analysis are 51 of the largest online shops (without Amazon) based on the rating Top 100 top-selling online shops in Germany by EHI and Statista (from 2020) and their SEO development for the German market based on a comparison of the Sistrix visibility index from May 2020 to May 2021.
On average, the 51 companies grew by 7.2% for desktop and 6.8% for mobile. That sounds relatively unspectacular at first, but if you take a look at the winners and losers, you can clearly see leaps.
On average, the 29 winners for desktop gained 22.98% while the 21 losers lost -13.10%. In mobile, the gains (28) are similar at 22.38% and the losses (22) are very different at -17.19%.
The following 26 companies were able to make gains for desktop and mobile in the period under review (Desktop | Mobile):
Otto +36,0% | +35,9%
Zalando +4,5% | +0,9%
Alternate +6,5% | +14,7%
Conrad +39,3% | +31,8%
H&M +7,1 | +1598,4%*
Ikea +38,9% | +36,7%
Docmorris +25,3% | +21,5%
Baur +57,8% | +43,6%
Shop Apotheke +77,5% | +77,2%
Thomann +11,1% | +0,77%
QVC +9,2% | +7,0%
Douglas +8,3% | +3,8%
Mytoys +3,4% | 2,7%
Zooplus +11,9% | +3,3%
Esprit +24,9% | +22,0%
Breuninger +17,0% | +11,4%
Klingel +38,5% | +26,0%
Flaconi +10,8% | +10,5%
Wayfair +9,4% | +6,1%
Eis.de +236,6% | +195,5%
Reuter +5,0% | +1,3%
Shein +34,1% | +19,0%
Medikamente-per-Click +19,7% | +17,6%
Soliver +10,2% | +12,9%
Medimops +252,7% | +207,6%
Rewe +27,0% | +21,8%
*H&M moved from a mobile site to a responsive mobile site, hence the sharp jump as there were no records for the domain for mobile devices
The following 20 companies lost visibility for desktop and mobile in the period studied (Desktop | Mobile):
Notebooksbilliger -9,1% | -9,0%
Lidl -5,9% | -9,9%
Saturn -27,7% | -20,7%
Bonprix -10,9% | -9,3%
Cyberport -10,6% | -12,1%
Apple -4,7% | -9,1%
Mindfactory -57,4% | -55,1%
Bett1 -23,9% | -27,4%
Bestsecret -3,1% | -6,1%
Limango -23,4% | -24,4%
Obi -5,0% | -8,2%
Asos -45,3% | -44,7%
Hornbach -5,3% | -5,8%
Degussa -21,5% | -15,1%
Medpex -23,2% | -24,6%
Auragentum -65,2% | -56,7%
Galeria -11,1% | -42,1%
HSE -45,5% | -46,9%
Home24 -31,2% | -33,5%
Brands4Friends -44,9% | -44,8%
For the following companies, the visibility for desktop mobile developed in opposite directions (desktop | mobile) in the period under review:
Tchibo +10,0% | -29%
Aboutyou +5,9% | -0,7%
Westfalia +4,3% | -12,7%
AO -0,2% | +10,7%
Mediamarkt -4,7% | +13,3%
There is some extreme change in the top 50. Let's take a look at the trends.
Best Secret, Limango and Brands 4 Friends all show a negative trend. Apparently, the sites got away with hiding the content behind the registration requirement for a long time. If this is the case, Limango has taken a first step in the right direction with its outwardly visible shop. The two competitors still require a login to purchase.
Besides Brands 4 Friends, Mindfactory, Asos, HSE, Home24 and the niche shop Auragentum have suffered the greatest losses. In the case of the latter, it could well have to do with the decrease in the gold price from July 2020 to May 2021.
In the case of Mindfactory, the slump of more than 50% is likely to have an extreme impact on organic sales. Update: however, visibility seems to be recovering since the end of June 2021. Nevertheless, one should think about the user experience, because the site does not really look modern with its old-fashioned logo and the large, overloaded text passages.
The trigger for Mindfactory was the Google Core Update from December 2020 and Asos is also struggling with the consequences. In contrast to Mindfactory, however, there is currently no recovery in sight for the London fashion shop.
The reason for the collapse of HSE, which is not very dependent on its SEO presence anyway, was a domain change from HSE24.de to HSE.de. Update: The change has now been completed and the domain visibility is almost back to the level it was before.
At Home 24, it is not yet clear where the journey is going. Although there has been a slight recovery in the meantime, the visibility trend still seems like a rollercoaster ride.
In addition to the Momox niche shop Medimops (+252.7% | +207.6%), the biggest winners include Shopapotheke (+77.5% | +77.2%), Baur (+57.8% | +43.6%), Otto (+36.0% | +35.9%), Conrad (+39.3% | +31.8%) and Ikea (+38.9% | +36.7%). Eis.de (+236.6% | +195.5%) can also make a huge leap in relative terms, but has absolutely little visibility, which of course is not essential for a niche shop.
It is noticeable that almost all pharmacies have significantly increased their visibility. Both Shop-Apotheke and Doc Morris, as well as Medikamente per Click, have made significant gains. Only Medpex has suffered significant losses, but seems to have the most frequented app of all four pharmacies. Here again, DocMorris and Medikamente per Click have a lot of catching up to do. It is also noticeable that Medikamente per Click has huge sales despite a very outdated front end. Either medicines as FMCGs are very independent of the shopping experience or they have strong advantages (low prices, fast delivery, etc.).
Since October 2020, the merger of Media Markt and Saturn has been completed, which is now also strongly visible in their online shops. The two shops are becoming more and more similar. There are only a few branding-specific differences. However, Google seems to view the increasingly similar content negatively, because although Mediamarkt was able to gain 13.3% on mobile, Saturn lost significantly on both desktop (-27.7%) and mobile (-20.7%). Whether an umbrella brand with a single strong online shop will emerge at some point in the future remains to be seen due to their strong roots in the retail sector.
A strong trend is emerging in the area of mobile optimisation. Only four of the 51 online shops examined continue to rely on their own mobile site (scheme m.domain.tld). While Aboutyou (-0.7%) and Notbooksbilliger (-9.0%) suffered mobile visibility losses, Thomann (+0.8%) improved slightly and Shein (+19%) made strong gains. However, the Chinese provider Shein is hardly relevant on mobile with an absolute visibility of 1.19.
While About-You has almost perfected the discipline of mobile websites, the trend among competitors seems to be more towards developing front-end-independent responsive designs. Last but not least, two other big players, H&M and Alternate, have also abandoned their mobile site projects.
It is also certainly exciting that the majority (40/51 online shops) of companies now rely on their own shopping apps. Only a few players are still not present in the big app stores: Alternate, Conrad, Mindfactory, Bett1, Degussa, Flaconi, Auragentum, Eis.de, Reuter, Medimops, Westfalia.
The most popular among these Apps seems to be Otto (593K ratings), Zalando (414K ratings), Asos (352K ratings), H&M (273K ratings) and Rewe (142K ratings).
In the turnover rating by EHI and Statista, Rewe was at that time the only provider from the food retail sector that actually delivers food (apart from Tchibo, where you can order coffee). This will probably change in the near future, because more and more companies like Gorillas or Flink are entering the sector - supported by strong investors. Lidl, who has so far preferred to (successfully) supply cuddly blankets and pyjamas, does not seem to be jumping on the bandwagon in time.
In the period under review, Amazon made slight gains for desktop and lost slightly for mobile (+2.0% | -1.45%). With a score of 3030, the US company actually has more visibility than the next 50 shops together, which only have 2367 (mobile: 2710 vs 2269).
Since the analysis is based on the EHI rating of the shops with the highest turnover in 2020 and this deals with the company data of 2019, some has certainly happened in the meantime. My Theresa, for example, has now catapulted to over EUR 600 million in sales and new players such as Emma are also to be expected with over EUR 400 million in the upcoming rating. The new study will probably be published again in September / October. We are curious!
