Never before have the online retailers digitec and Galaxus gained so many new customers in such a short space of time as since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic: the company has announced that a good 2.15 million private individuals and over 145,000 companies made purchases from the two online stores between April 2020 and March 2021. A year earlier, the figures were 1.4 million private individuals and 100,000 companies. This corresponds to growth of 54% and 45% respectively. However, the more than 770,000 new customers do not explain the online retailer's overall growth: its turnover actually rose by 59% to 1.83 billion Swiss francs in 2020.

And what about bicycle sales? According to Alex Hämmerli from Digitec Galaxus AG, only growth figures are given for the product types, including bicycles, and no specific sales figures are communicated. The company therefore does not disclose the turnover, units sold or new customers acquired for bicycles.Even without this transparency, the growth figures for Digitec Galaxus' bicycle division speak for themselves. From April 2020 up to and including March 2021, i.e. 12 months since the outbreak of the pandemic in Switzerland, compared to April 2019 up to and including March 2020, i.e. 12 months before coronavirus, the company sold 287 percent more e-bikes and 67 percent more mountain bikes in terms of unit sales. Hämmerli provides further details on the bikes sold: "We don't make the split between city e-bikes and e-mountain bikes. However, most of the e-bikes we sell have city tires. Overall, we sold 48 percent more bikes in the period from April 2020 to March 2021."

Hämmerli also announces how the range of bikes is developing: "With the update from April 26, 2021: Compared to the same time last year, we already have around 40 percent fewer bikes on offer. Prices on the Swiss bike market are also above the 2020 level on average, partly because there is no price war between suppliers due to the high demand."