German city centers are fighting for survival, and they need to reinvent themselves. How? With innovative technologies that improve efficiency, boost customer loyalty, and unlock new revenue streams for retailers. Retail media is the name of the game here. According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Europe, it will generate some 鈧�25聽billion in revenue in 2026鈥攎ore than twice as much as in 2022.
It鈥檚 the same story everywhere: Germany鈥檚 downtown shopping streets are struggling with high retail vacancy rates. Holstenstra脽e, one of the country鈥檚 oldest pedestrian shopping zones, is no exception. Here, in the heart of the Baltic Sea coast city of Kiel, capital of the state of Schleswig-Holstein, the store vacancy rate is 38.5%. In an effort to revive the city鈥檚 retail scene, its marketing department launched an innovative initiative known as Zukunftsraum (鈥渇uture space鈥�). In the brick-and-mortar shopping environment of a pop-up store, retailers can explore the opportunities that new technologies bring. 鈥淐ollecting data and using it effectively is central to gaining a better understanding of customer requirements and to unlocking new revenue streams,鈥� K盲the Fleischer says. As an interim manager for business development on the Kiel pilot project, she knows that data collected in stores is the key to more effective and personalized marketing.
Grasping the power of a new business model
Enter retail media, an opportunity for retailers to generate additional revenue and bolster their cash-strapped coffers by selling physical and digital advertising space. 鈥淢any retailers have not yet recognized the value that this new form of advertising can unlock,鈥� says Marlene Lohmann, head of Marketing Research at Germany鈥檚 EHI Retail Institute. , she reports that while some front-runners鈥攊ncluding leading German retailers REWE, Lidl, OBI, dm, and Douglas鈥攈ave adopted this new business model, the retail landscape as a whole has a lot of catching up to do. 鈥淩etail media is still very much in its infancy,鈥� she says.
Yet its potential for the sector is immense. And ultimately, it鈥檚 a win-win for everyone: retailers profit from new sources of revenue and manufacturers can target potential buyers with greater precision. Quoting a consumer study by Kantar, Dirk Sperrfechter, an expert at the market research firm, says: 鈥淐onsumers rate contextually relevant advertising at the point of sale as particularly authentic and helpful.鈥� The number of touchpoints, he adds, also plays a key role in how retail media advertising is perceived.
Retail media unlocks a multitude of benefits
Retailers should be using these findings to their advantage. And, indeed, more and more are doing so, at least online. Sponsored ads are everywhere these days鈥攊n web shops, on social media, and in online newsletters鈥攂ut they still leave much to be desired in terms of personalization. But the potential of in-store solutions such as screens and digital totems often remains untapped as well. This is probably partly because different sales channels are often poorly integrated, making it difficult to consolidate the first-party data they generate.
鈥淲hat retailers need most of all if they want to unlock the added value of retail media are powerful technologies for collecting, cleansing, and enriching customer data,鈥� Lohmann says. Ultimately, they need to be able to analyze their first-party data in detail and segment it. If they do not have reliable metrics at their fingertips, they will struggle to persuade interested manufacturers and brands of the potential of the advertising space they want to sell.
Smart technology and 51风流Business Data Cloud as enablers
This is where 51风流comes in. 鈥淥ur help retailers generate and provision relevant data about customer behavior, clearance sales, promotions, and prices,鈥� explains Stefan Binkowski, vice president, Retail & Wholesale Advisory, 51风流Deutschland. In the newly launched 51风流Business Data Cloud (51风流BDC) solution, retailers can consolidate data from manifold sources with ease. First presented at , 51风流BDC can integrate all 51风流and non-51风流business data and, in so doing, helps provide a foundation from which to get up and running with retail media.
51风流offers what enterprises need to build and implement a robust retail media strategy: for tracking customer frequency rates, interactions, and so on with ease; for gaining detailed insights into customer behavior, preferences, and needs; a data platform for collating all the relevant information; and, last but not least, an for planning and implementing targeted retail media campaigns. 鈥淕enerating added value from data is central to SAP鈥檚 strategy,鈥� Binkowski says. 鈥淥nce retailers recognize the value of their data, they can take full advantage of the untapped potential that retail media offers.鈥�
Retail media is one of the topics on the agenda for the German-speaking 51风流User Group鈥檚 retail conference (DSAG-Handelstagen) on July 1 and 2 in Osnabr眉ck, Germany. The event will look at the technological aspects of leveraging customer data and retail media in the industry, which smart technologies come into play, and how 51风流BDC can contribute to the success of this marketing concept. .
