EY Parthenon
Dusseldorf/Berlin (ots)
- Not technology, but consumer behavior decides
- Retail companies need to focus on their core competencies, namely serving and advising
- Trade Congress in Berlin
At the trade congress in Berlin, the future viability of German trade was discussed under the motto “#ShapingTheFuture – trade makes the future”. The conversations focused on innovations and opportunities emerging for retailers, for example from emerging topics like Metaverse.
“Especially for the stationary trade, there is no ‘keep it up’,” says Dr. Ludwig Voll, partner and trading company expert at EY-Parthenon. 65% of those surveyed in this year’s EY-Parthenon performance ranking say they now enjoy online shopping the most. Voll adds that this is not good news for stationary retailers.
Metaverse as a catalyst for transformation
“We want to use the Metaverse discussion to drive transformation,” explains the EY Parthenon partner. “Retail companies need to ask themselves: am I still relevant when everything is physically gone?” According to the expert, the important question is not how technology develops, but how customer behavior develops. “We are increasingly seeing that customers only interact with companies that are relevant to them and offer added value. For example, advertisements in newsletters are less relevant than personalized advertisements on Instagram,” adds Ludwig Voll.
Problem child stationary trade
The pressure to transform, especially for physical retailers, has increased in recent years. “During Corona, trading houses suddenly had to find creative solutions to get their wares to the people,” says Dr. Jörg Schäfer, Partner at EY Parthenon. “Many retailers had set up delivery and collection options, but these initiatives have been discontinued after the restrictions ended.” Many retailers have no concrete idea yet whether or how they want to participate in the Metaverse. “The starting point should always be what makes me relevant as a retailer to my customers and how I create added value for them,” says Schäfer. “Any investment in the future should be measured by its relevance to the target audience.”
About EY Parthenon
EY-Parthenon is EY’s global strategy consulting brand. With more than 7,000 professionals in 120 countries, we support our clients in business and growth strategy, restructuring and turnaround strategy, and transaction strategy and implementation.
With the combination of well-founded industry and deep functional expertise, we support our clients in developing future-oriented business models, reorganizing their portfolios and redesigning their economic and social ecosystem. Our goal is to solve complex problems and bring about real change. We achieve this in an entrepreneurial and implementation-oriented way: we develop transformative strategies that ensure sustainable value growth for companies and their stakeholders and execute them together with them.
We are proud of our team-oriented culture characterized by unique people and our own way of doing things. We passionately work as a team with our clients to find bespoke and also unconventional solutions that unleash their potential.
For more information, visit www.ey.com/en/parthenon.
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Original content by: EY Parthenon, broadcast by news aktuell