The retail and services group will invest 300 million euros by 2015 in the development of e-commerce, said rainer hillebrand, member of the board of management, in hamburg. E-commerce sales are expected to rise from 5.7 to 8 billion euros in the same period.
Internet retailing has been the growth driver for the otto group for many years, and in the past fiscal year (28.2.) up 400 million euros. The online sales of the 60 or so e-commerce stores account for around 57 percent of otto’s retail sales, compared with 62 percent in germany.
"The otto group is better placed than almost any other provider to cover the entire e-commerce value chain," said hillebrand. This is about much more than the mere online presence of traditional mail order companies such as OTTO or baur.
In the retail sector, otto is dovetailing the various sales channels to create an integrated shopping experience. At sportscheck, for example, stores are networked with online, mobile and tablet stores.
Retail-related services are also a major source of revenue. This ranges from logistics to financing and order processing. Otto not only develops these services for its own use, but also offers them to other companies. This summer, the next project to be launched will be yapital, a new type of payment system in retail, not just on the internet.
A strong area is also the so-called enabling. The service consists of bringing brands online and turning them into strong online retailers. "The online share of total retail will continue to grow strongly," said hillebrand. But this does not mean that stationary trade will become superfluous. The group itself regularly launches new online stores worldwide and tries out different business models. After five years, the companies should be profitable, otherwise they will be dropped again.