Post-pandemic Urbanis

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In order to counter the dominance of the large platforms and provide local merchants with alternative avenues to digitization, numerous municipalities have set up city- or region-wide merchant platforms. Many of these platforms have been tried out, but none have been able to truly establish themselves anywhere. One possible reason: customers like comfort. They prefer platforms where they can browse through as many different products as possible. But local merchant platforms usually only cover a very limited range, and they suffer from having a low profile. In addition to the technical equipment, it is mainly daily operations that pose major challenges to the digitization of retail. Products must be entered, described, and priced on the website. Shipping, returns, and complaints must be managed. The logistical effort is enormous and personnel-intensive. Small retailers often cannot afford this—or they have to become dependent on the platforms that dominate the market. The fear is thus justified that the digitization of brick-and-mortar retail will not work on a large scale. The established platforms—eBay for second-hand goods, Etsy for homemade items, Zalando for clothing, Otto for all kinds of things, and Amazon for nearly everything—will always be more efficient at doing online business than small retailers, who do not have comparable storage capacities, logistics structures, customer centers, and IT departments at their disposal. Even the parcel levy currently being discussed for online retailers will not be able to fundamentally change this. While such an instrument can contribute to better tax equity and allow online retailers to share in the costs of the municipal infrastructure they use, the general competitive disadvantage of brick-and-mortar retailing remains. 38 The Pandemic as a Boost for New Retail Concepts Even before the COVID-19 <strong>pandemic</strong>, retail companies were experimenting with new sales concepts. For some, the crisis has been an opportunity to make the leap to the mass market. Click and Collect: This form of distribution received a significant boost during lockdown. With click and collect, goods are ordered online and picked up in or outside a store. If this trend continues, the question arises as to whether branches in their current form will still be needed at all in the long term. It is conceivable that in the future retail chains will increasingly rely on what is called the
39 long-tail approach: all items will be available without the need to have them in stock on-site. 8 genialokal: Order Online, Pick Up in Bookstore The genialokal platform is based on the catalog and logistics of the intermediary bookseller Libri. Customers can order more than six million books online and pick them up at more than 700 owner-operated bookstores. The offer also includes e-books, audio books, and toys. Retail as a Service: In this concept, sales areas are rented out for a certain period of time to changing manufacturers to present their products. The focus is on ambiance, advice, and product presentation. Items can be touched and tested, making up for the last notable competitive disadvantage of Internet retailing, namely the lack of haptic experience. Purchases can be made immediately in the store—where the goods can be paid for but often not taken away immediately—or later on the Internet. Amazon is also experimenting with these kinds of concepts: in pop-up stores and standalone bookstores, which are largely designed as exhibition spaces, Amazon is offering a rotating range of products and testing hybrid sales concepts. 9 Hybrid Niche Models: To help them stand out from the competition, more and more retailers are choosing the path of radical specialization. Instead of offering a wide range of products, they are reducing their offering to a few selected sectors. They share this expertise not only in-store but also through various online channels, where they create significant value for their followers by highlighting their uniqueness. They are thus equally retailers and influencers. 10 Nevertheless, the risk remains that customers will take advantage of their advice while making a purchase elsewhere. This model is therefore particularly suitable for individual products that are not 8 See Stephan A. Jansen, “Wie geht Konsumgesellschaft ohne Konsum?,” brand eins, November 2020, 44–50. 9 See Felix Hartenstein, “Amazon: Vom Buchhändler zum Städtebauer,” Baunetzwoche vol. 546 (2019): 6–18. 10 See Jens Bergmann, “Der moderne Verkäufer ist Influencer: Interview mit Alexander Graf,” brand eins, November 2020, 52–55.
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