New DFG project by Dr. Sina Hardaker - How online platforms influence the stationary retail trade
- sinahardaker
- Jun 18, 2024
- 1 min read
In an increasingly digitalized world, it is essential for brick-and-mortar retailers in Germany to face up to the implications of digital platforms. These new technologies have not only changed consumers' shopping behavior, but also the way retailers run their businesses.
More than three million people work in around 300,000 companies in the German retail sector. At around 650 billion euros, the sector was responsible for around 17% of Germany's gross domestic product in 2023. Just under 80 billion euros were generated online - and the trend is rising.
Digital marketplaces accounted for 63% of this, with Amazon alone accounting for 53%. Other players, above all Chinese platforms such as Temu, are also increasingly entering the market - with far-reaching effects on goods and value chains, says Sina Hardaker: "Very different platform models are impacting the German retail sector and directly or indirectly influencing the daily work processes of brick-and-mortar retailers and reorganizing communication and sales channels. This development offers enormous opportunities, but also puts brick-and-mortar retailers under further pressure to adapt their business models and strategies as well as location and investment decisions."
A DFG-funded research project at Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU) now wants to take a closer look at these developments. Which platforms play a role? How far has platformization progressed? What legitimizations underlie these processes and what dependencies are traders becoming dependent on?
