According to a recent survey by the Federal Association of German Textile, Shoe and Leather Goods Retailers (BTE), its members are most concerned about the migration of customers to online trading and the recruitment of good employees and trainees.
On a scale from 1 (no problem) to 10 (very big problem), the participating dealers rated the two points with a value of 7.9 and 7.7.
A total of 14 problem areas were identified, ranging from 7.9 (customer migration to online trading) as serious to 3.3 (image problems due to the sustainability discussion) as less serious.
Price reductions cause headaches
Too early and extensive price reductions, growing bureaucracy and rising purchase prices were each rated as above-average and challenging with ratings of 7.6, 7.1 and 7.0 and together with the two aforementioned make up the five biggest problems for retailers.
This is followed by increasing competition from their own suppliers – both online and stationary (6.9), delivery problems on the procurement side (6.7) and the attractiveness of their own location in the middle problem area.
Competition and lost sales plague brick-and-mortar retailers
The remaining six areas named as problems are the development of personnel costs (5.9), insufficient control of goods over the course of the season (5.4), increasing competition from factory outlet centers (5.1), loss of sales at previously strong suppliers ( 5.0), the increasing stationary competition from vertical companies (4.9) and, bringing up the rear, image problems due to the sustainability discussion.
It is now up to brick-and-mortar retailers to increase the attractiveness of visiting the store and to network it with digital experiences and information in order to continue to lure customers into the stores.