Statements by the community

Benjamin Beinroth Fressnapf

The ecological footprint in e-commerce is sub-optimal. It is definitely much better in our stores. We retailers and the industry still don’t address it enough, we still take the easiest route too often. I think the topic needs to be thought through in a new and smarter way. There are simple solutions like Click & Collect, but some things will be more complex to solve and only possible if we look beyond consumption and growth and think about how we want to live.

E-Commerce is put to an ecological test

We developed “Ship from Store” and our ordering service to fulfill customer requests faster, better and possibly even more environmentally friendly. We routed the orders to the store closest to the customers. We developed the concepts in cooperation with our employees on the ground and not over their heads. In this manner, the local retailers can engage with our online customers and, at best, “transform” them into omnichannel customers. These bring us significantly greater added value because the share of wallet is highest here. To this end, we are also developing further ideas with our partners to make the entire online and marketplace range available to our customers in their local Fressnapf store.

Smaller, nearer, faster are retail's next big thing

Six years ago, IT was still the bottleneck and we had to completely reorganise the whole organisation. Now, however, IT plays a key role in developing the business models. We work in a completely agile way and at eye level with each other. I see myself as a coach in this process. Thinking from the perspective of the end customer involved a major transformation of the business concept and required new thinking throughout the organisation. It’s about attitude and taking responsibility. Because such a transformation is in fact never over and cannot be driven from the outside.

Retail is incapable to master digitization under its own steam alone

Our employees are our most important customers. They provide us with the most honest, direct and therefore best feedback. Because of Corona, cooperation with the whole team has become basically contactless. We had to adapt quickly and transfer all forms of contact into the virtual world. Every week, I will simply call three or four staff members without a professional background, making small talk and having a coffee. This way we can establish the new culture and even expand it – despite the growth of the team and the cooperation at a distance.