Consumption

As CEO of German DIY store Hornbach-Baumärkte, Erich Harsch manages 23,000 employees. In a GDI video interview, he talks about good leadership, the biggest challenges of a multichannel retailer and global supply chains.

Javier Goyeneche makes clothes out of plastic waste through his label Ecoalf. He says: "Instead of asking ourselves which earth we are leaving to our children, we should be concerned about which children we are leaving to the earth." Watch the whole video interview from the GDI Retail Summit here.

Max Premium Burgers was already considered a pioneer in climate and environmental awareness before the coronavirus crisis. After all, the chain’s food has been climate-positive since 2018. At the European Foodservice Summit 2021, CEO Richard Bergfors will show how his family business became a sustainability role model.

The dynamic in online retailing has been apparent since before the Covid-19 crisis: there is no retail concept that cannot be digitalised. But what about physical retail space? What should remain, what should disappear, what needs more space?

"All retailers could benefit from being a bit more paranoid and protective of their turf." This is what Sucharita Kodali, Vice President at the American market research company Forrester, says. This means that they should invest more in protecting their intellectual property and lobbying for laws in their favour, just like Google, Facebook and Co. are doing. Read an interview here. Sucharita Kodali spoke at the 71st International Retail Summit on 9 and 10 September 2021.

How do you manage your staff during a pandemic of unprecedented magnitude? What doesn't work at all in such a situation? One person who should know is Erich Harsch. As CEO of the Hornbach DIY group, he is responsible for 23,000 employees. How did his employees inspire him during the pandemic? Harsch discussed it all here in an interview, and at the 71st International Retail Summit.

Most online shops today are based on the same 25-year-old tile design. Neha Singh, founder and CEO of the e-commerce platform Obsess, wants to change this with her 360-degree online shops. She explained why investors thought this was worth USD 3.4 million in a video and at the GDI International Retail Summit.

The dematerialisation, demonetisation and democratisation of shopping has only just begun. Consumption as we know it today will cease to exist. Magic Commerce is one possible future scenario.

Research into creating fish, meat and milk in a test tube is booming. Investors anticipate big profits and are investing enormous sums, but as yet, no products have come to market. Here, and at the upcoming 1st International Food Innovation Conference, we provide an overview of how the cellular agriculture market will develop.

Whether in the form of neighbourhood shopping or delivery to the doorstep, proximity to consumers is becoming increasingly important, as the pandemic has shown. Mario Irminger, CEO of the discounter Denner, outlined the conclusions he has drawn from this in a video interview and at the GDI Retail Summit.