KonzeptioNerd

Be where your customers are

Michael Otto is chairman of Otto Versand, one of Germany’s largest mailorder companies. Alexander Otto is chairman of ECE, a company that buildes and runs large shopping arcades in Germany. Rivals? No - brothers.

In the late 1960s, their father, Walter Otto, decided to supplement his mailorder business with malls. Not fearing cannibalization, Otto chose to be where his customers are - no matter where that might be.

Otto is also one of Germany’s most innovative online-retailers. And they are cooperating with much the same brands through all channels.

That’s a rare strategy. Most companies still fear cannibalization when it comes to selling on the internet. Often, producers have barely managed to finetune their retailer-relationships and won’t use the full potential of the internet for fear of alienating their dealer-network.

They overlook that buying decisions are usually based on multiple, fuzzy factors and that different customers have different needs and different preferences. Increasing the number of your (different) sales channels is less likely to lead to canniballization than it is offering more buying opportunities to more and more different customers.

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