MediaMarktSaturn creates ideal shopping experience and sustainable lifestyle

By Dr. Karsten Wildberger, Chief Executive Officer, MediaMarktSaturn

Dr. Karsten Wildberger on moving beyond consumerism and creating experiences in electronics retail.

How are consumer values changing and what does this mean for retailers’ business models?
Today for our customers, it’s no longer just about the lowest price. It’s about the best price-performance ratio. It’s about speed, reliability, convenience at any place, at any time, across all channels. And it’s about complete solutions. Therefore, we pursue a customer-oriented omnichannel strategy and always think from the customer’s perspective with a clear mobile first mindset. Therefore, we consistently focus on service, advice and sustainability. People are buying much more consciously today, they want to contribute to a future worth living. We support them and made sustainability a hallmark of our company.

What tools is MediaMarktSaturn using to create the ideal shopping experience?
We rely on digitalisation and use apps that simplify processes for our customers, for example for online orders in the stores. For us, omnichannel means closely combining our brick-and-mortar business with our online business, based on efficient logistics and smart IT solutions. Take Click & Collect: the customer orders online and can pick up the goods at the nearest store within 29 minutes. Around 40% of our customers use this service. In general, we are tackling all areas where we can further improve the shopping experience for our customers. We will further strengthen and modernise our stores and also offer attractive customer experiences with smaller formats. We continue to develop our online business forward. This also includes our Marketplace. We will expand our Services & Solutions offerings. And we will seize our opportunities in new product categories such as fitness, health and mobility and also develop new business areas. For example, we see great potential in Retail Media in line with our platform approach.

Looking at Services & Solutions: How important is sustainability in this context and why?
Sustainability plays a major role here. We offer our customers a range of services to support the circular economy, for example, with repair services, with the trade-in of old equipment, with an increasing number of sustainably certified products in our assorment or with energy-efficient products.

So, sustainability is an integral part of your strategy?
For MediaMarktSaturn, sustainability is a value itself and an obligation to future generations. But sustainability is the fundament to enhance and differentiate our existing business, too. What we offer in terms of sustainability is unmatched by anyone else in our industry.