In the second year of Corona, the online book trade made sales of 2.6 billion euros - that was more than a quarter (27 percent) of the total sales in the book industry. Compared to 2019 before the corona pandemic and before the population used the internet more due to restrictions, it was seven percentage points more.

The Federal Statistical Office counts all books bought on the Internet as online book trade, including in the online shops of booksellers. In addition, the pure assortment book trade makes up the largest part of the industry - even if it only contributed 39 percent to sales in 2021. while in 2019 it was 46 percent. This also includes station bookshops and other shops and department stores that sell other products in addition to books.

The sale of e-books has recently increased significantly, as the statisticians further announced. While 1.9 million e-books were sold in 2010, by 2020 there were already 35.8 million digital books. The average price paid for an e-book fell from EUR 10.71 to EUR 6.63.