Innovation Practices of REWE Markt in Germany. Digital Innovation and Business Strategy (PDF)

Seminar paper from the year 2015 in the subject Business economics - Offline Marketing and Online Marketing, grade: 1,7, Sophia Antipolis Campus (France); SKEMA Business School, language: English, abstract: The German retailer REWE Markt emphasizes digital innovation in their business strategy to optimize its supply chain efficiency and to be first in new innovative solutions that attract customers in- and off-store, off- and online. The following paper addresses digital innovation practices of REWE Markt over the past years as well as its role within the retail industry that it takes in digital terms.

For 2016, one can expect new dynamics in the retail business in Europe. Amazon announced in 2015 to introduce Amazon Fresh in some European countries. Its online shopping service for fresh grocery will include delivery times less than twenty-four hours after putting the order. Competitors reactions have been for instance improved delivery times of only few hours after the order to outperform Amazon in advance.

E-commerce is merely one of the big digital issues where retailers are forced to invest. Connected with that is also a great logistic chain that has to be digitally coordinated in order to keep track on the demand and crowds of data that have to be processed. Furthermore, there are efforts to develop digital in-store solutions for an improved shopping experience. In the past years, big traditional retail players have missed the chance to develop accordingly to the pace of technological developments.

Now where non-traditional retail companies such as Amazon expand into grocery offerings as well as extent their logistical facilities, they are finally in their wake-up mode and grow their efforts to innovate digitally as this is a key competitive factor.