Number of office and stationery retailers in Germany 2002-2022

The number of businesses in German office supply and stationery retail has been declining year after year, as can be clearly seen in this graph. While in 2002 there were close to 8,000 businesses, in 2022 numbers had dropped to less than 3,500. 

Off paper

Office supply and stationery retail developments are being influenced by a number of factors, the leading one being perhaps the ongoing digitalization in the workplace that is leading to a decreased demand for analog office supplies. Another reason might be that these goods are easy to get and are also available not just in specialized shops, but in supermarkets and drugstores, to name just a few examples. 
However, retail revenues of office supply and stationery goods have been generally declining for the past five years, reaching just under two billion euros in 2022.

China in the lead

According to most recent figures, China was the leading exporter of office supplies to the rest of the world, with an export value of about 5.3 billion U.S. dollars. Germany ranked second, with an export volume of approximately 2.6 billion U.S. dollars worth of office supplies that year.