Alexander Birken on the digitalization of the business model of the Otto Group and the attempt to emulate Amazon
“But people have not just been changing their behavior since the Corona crisis. That’s why we have been digitalizing our business models worldwide for many years. Other retailers must have been doing this for a long time. We also offer a platform with otto.de where they can offer their products to us under fair conditions. The platform is being built according to plan, some of it was a technological challenge, but also culturally. Suddenly we allow something like the competition of several retailers with the same product on our site. That was a big step in self-understanding. But it pays off. So far, around 500 retailers are using the offer, this year we will add 1000 more. Customers are responding well.”
– Alexander Birken, CEO of the Otto Group, in “We have nothing against buying less”, Die ZEIT, April 29, 2020
