In addition to the fact that non-essential shops were forcibly closed from 16 March to curb the spread of coronavirus, the membership fee for stores using Letzshop was scrapped until the end of the year.

The figure was released by Lex Delles, DP minister for small and medium-sized businesses, responding to a parliamentary question from Marc Goergen (pirate partei).

He further explained that during the lockdown some 345,000 articles were featured on the platform. This, he said, was 15% higher than the situation three months earlier.

The growth in site visits was even more impressive with 383% more users per month (from 51,111-195,763), 556% more sessions (from 66,667-370,551) and 1,121% more page views (from 228,722-2,563,559).