Blog
May 24, 2019
The Connect – Digital Commerce Conference on May 22, 2019 brought together Swiss C2C, B2C, B2B, and D2C companies, manufacturers, brands, publishers, marketplaces, pure players, and omni-channel retailers, both digital and brick-and-mortar. In front of the who’s who of Swiss retail and online commerce, decision-makers and retailers took to the stage to share their experiences in today’s retail landscape, both positive and negative. The expert moderators Thomas Lang and Malte Polzin cheerfully guided the audience through the day and provided the keynote speakers with a good foundation for their presentations.
TV presenter Patrizia Laeri from Swiss television described how social media helped her establish herself as her own brand. CEO of ExLibris AG Danny Röthlin explained why the company closed unprofitable branches and at the same time massively expanded its digital channels in order to develop further. Laure Frank, Director of eCommerce & Omnichannel, showed how Manor intends to drive forward its omnichannel strategy in the future with a massive expansion of its online shop and greater digitalization of its branches. Marc Isler, CRO of Tamedia, explained from his point of view what it takes to survive the digital transformation and remain successful in the market.
Coop’s new non-food marketplace Microspot was presented in more detail by CEO Pierre Wenger. As Siroop’s successor, Microspot is intended to integrate the product ranges of the various Coop divisions more closely, turning Microspot into a kind of Coop marketplace. Voice technology is also set to be used more extensively in online retail in the future, although this development and the use of this technology means that it will fall into the hands of large providers such as Amazon and Google.
Data is becoming more accessible, more necessary and therefore more important; it is the new oil. A raw material that should be used in a more structured way in practice. Isabelle Zehnder (Betty Bossi), Max Meister (Ludwig Meister GmbH & Co. KG), and Cornelia Diethelm (Shifting Society AG and founder of the Think Tank for Digital Ethics) discussed this topic and tried to show how data will create progress and innovation, thereby increasing the competitiveness of companies.
In his keynote speech, Dennis Lück used case studies to demonstrate the possibilities offered by data. Philipp Man, CEO of Chronext, described how his company achieved success in online sales of luxury watches—a business model that many experts believed would never work. Marketplaces are still around and will continue to bring together groups with shared interests. Marcel Dobler talked about how Digitec has progressed from its founding to the present day.
In the evening, the Digital Commerce Award 2019 ceremony took place, with Brack CH AG being named Digital Commerce Champion 2019. Following the award ceremony, the Swiss digital commerce industry celebrated the winners and enjoyed exclusive networking opportunities. The motto of the event is a little theory and a lot of practical experience. Decision-makers presented their experiences on stage and talked about things that didn’t work.
As always, Connect was authentic, practical, and uncomplicated.