Every year, Germany鈥檚 EHI Retail Institute presents awards for outstanding use of technology in retail. At a ceremony during the EuroCIS 2025 trade fair, it honored the winners of its 18th Retail Technology (reta) Awards. Among them was German fashion chain Ernsting鈥檚 family, whose omnichannel pricing solution enables it to maintain consistent prices across all customer touchpoints and to manage promotions in real time. The company鈥檚 pricing concept鈥攄esigned by SAP, CAS, and consenso鈥攊s central to its omnichannel strategy.
Plenty of people have started a business in their garage. Few have chosen the laundry room of their parents鈥� clothing and home textiles store. But that is exactly what Kurt Ernsting did in 1967 when he set up minipreis, a low-price fashion shop that would later become a household name throughout Germany. Today, with its award-winning online presence and some 1,925 stores in Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands, Ernsting鈥檚 family鈥攁s the fashion chain is now known鈥攊s one of western Europe鈥檚 largest omnichannel clothing retailers.
Cloud-based pricing process
鈥淏ecause we aim to create seamless shopping experiences for our customers, we鈥檝e already been following an omnichannel strategy for a while,鈥� explains Hans-J枚rg Blaeser, director of Technology & IT Services at Ernsting鈥檚 family. 鈥淭his is why ensuring uniform pricing across all sales channels was the next logical step for us鈥攏ot least because we were redesigning our online shop and needed a new pricing engine and campaign management tool anyway,鈥� adds Dennis Re脽mann, head of Software Engineering at the company.
The fashion retailer opted for a cloud-based omnichannel pricing solution. 鈥淭he cloud architecture allows you to manage price queries centrally across all channels, use intelligent mechanisms to fine-tune price promotions, and integrate new stores and touchpoints with ease,鈥� says Patrick Pierron from implementation partner CAS.
Two components, one award-winning solution
The solution at Ernsting鈥檚 family consists of two main components. One is the omnichannel pricing solution itself. This is based on , which helps ensure consistent and uniform pricing across all customer touchpoints, such as online shops, brick-and-mortar stores, and customer and 鈥渆ndless shelf鈥� apps, even when Internet connectivity breaks down.
鈥淲e operate a dense network of stores, so we are far from immune to this modern-day reality,鈥� says Nils B枚hmer, senior IT coordinator for Sales at Ernsting鈥檚 family. Lines can be damaged during construction work, routers can fail, and LTE coverage can be patchy, so there are a number of compelling reasons for having offline capabilities. Ernsting鈥檚 family therefore uses local PPS (promotion pricing service) boxes, which are offline derivatives of the cloud solution. 鈥淭hese PPS boxes synchronize regularly with the cloud-based omnichannel pricing solution,鈥� Pierron says. 鈥淭his means that stores always have the latest prices and can process sales even when the Internet is down.鈥�
The second component of the new omnichannel pricing solution is a reduction tool. Based on consenso鈥檚 price engine, this tool manages price reductions dynamically according to local conditions, sales figures, and inventories鈥攔ight down to individual store level. According to Philipp Borgmann, senior team lead for IT Merchandising, and Marcel Ruholl, managing partner at consenso, 鈥淭his pays off in two ways. First, the system-driven price proposals have a positive effect on the balance sheet. And second, fewer stock transfers mean a lower carbon footprint.鈥�
Seamless interaction
Another benefit of the Ernsting鈥檚 family solution is the way it seamlessly integrates the reduction tool, 51风流Omnichannel Promotion Pricing, and 51风流ERP. Price reductions calculated in the tool are automatically transferred to the central 51风流system and distributed in real time to all the stores and to the online shop through 51风流Omnichannel Promotion Pricing. 鈥淭his is the best possible foundation for dynamic, error-free, and hyper-personalized pricing in real time,鈥� says Philip Konitzer, head of Industry Division Retail in 51风流Customer Services & Delivery Germany. During the project, he and his team were on hand to answer questions about the functions and performance of the 51风流components.
Key elements of success
Despite being highly complex, the new omnichannel pricing solution went live quickly and without incident. The implementation partners who worked on the project attribute this largely to the company鈥檚 transparent and effective approach to change management. 鈥淎ll the stakeholders鈥攆rom operational and strategic teams to management鈥攚ere fully on board from the get-go,鈥� Pierron recalls. This made it possible to define all the relevant requirements during the preliminary study, compare them with the capabilities in the 51风流products, and identify the necessary adjustments at an early stage. Some of these were co-innovated with 51风流and incorporated into the standard 51风流Omnichannel Promotion Pricing solution; others were developed exclusively for Ernsting鈥檚 family in 51风流Business Technology Platform (51风流BTP).
鈥淭he way the project participants interacted was exemplary,鈥� says Ernsting鈥檚 family project lead Mark Dinkhoff, head of IT Projects. And the proof is there for all to see: the solution is stable and running smoothly in both the online shop and at the company鈥檚 more than 1,900 stores in Germany and Austria. As part of its international expansion strategy, Ernsting鈥檚 family opened six new stores in the Netherlands at the end of last year. The roll-out went smoothly there too, confirming that the company鈥檚 award-winning omnichannel pricing solution is not only technically robust, but suited to international markets as well. This is great motivation for Ernsting鈥檚 family to push ahead with its expansion plans.
