Today, users are spoiled for choice in the fashion sector: more and more providers are entering the Swiss market.The situation for retailers in Switzerland is more than tense, especially in the fashion trade: although fashion has a long tradition as a mail order business in Switzerland with catalog mail order companies such as Ackermann, Spengler and Veillon, international providers now have a firm grip on the Swiss market. Stationary retailers such as Charles Vögele, Schild and PKZ have also failed to secure substantial online market shares. This is despite the fact that they launched their online stores before a Zalando was launched in Switzerland. Zalando, on the other hand, has become the market leader in Swiss online fashion retail in just four years. And the next foreign competitors are already appearing on the market: the online stores AboutYou - a successful start-up from the Otto Group - and the French provider Sarenza were launched in 2015. Fashion giant H&M also went online in Switzerland just a few months ago.
Electronics market is resistantIn contrast to Swiss fashion retailers, the electronics market is proving remarkably resilient. There are several reasons for this: Firstly, Switzerland has already had a lower price level in individual product ranges such as televisions for some time. Secondly, computers in particular are very country-specific if you think only of keyboards. And with electronic products in general, even the power plugs differ from country to country. This is certainly one reason why the electronics market is still firmly in Swiss hands with Digitec, Brack, Microspot, PCP, ARP and others. Nevertheless, two prominent German online players, Alternate and Reichelt Elektronik, have just launched in Switzerland. Swiss retailers would therefore do well to keep a close eye on this development and strengthen their own market position.
Amazon not dominant in SwitzerlandSurprisingly, Amazon does not have the same market dominance in Switzerland as in other countries. Although Amazon will also generate sales of 400 to 500 million Swiss francs with Swiss customers in 2015, this is like a drop in the ocean compared to the almost 12 billion dollars generated in Germany alone in 2014. There are many reasons for this: Amazon does not operate its own store in Switzerland, but instead refers customers to the surrounding countries of Germany, France or Italy, depending on the language region. In addition, many product ranges are not delivered to Switzerland. However, the majority of Swiss retailers are aware that it is only a matter of time before Amazon becomes the number one retailer in Switzerland too, and visitors can also find out about the latest trends in international e-commerce at the Internet World trade fair and the parallel congress from March 1 - 2, 2016 in Munich. Find out more at
www.internetworld-messe.deVisiting the trade fair is free of charge after pre-registration, the congress is subject to a fee, but readers of Marketing & Kommunikation benefit from special conditions when entering the code
IW16muk and attend the congress for the price of
€ 950,- plus VAT (2 days) respectively
€650,- plus VAT (1 day).
