The strong growth of the Marketplace is due, among other things, to an expanded product portfolio, the completed rollout in five countries - Germany, Austria, Spain, the Netherlands and, most recently, Italy in July - as well as the expansion of refurbished products and the ongoing optimization of the integration of the Marketplace with the online stores. Other important cornerstones of the Marketplace strategy, which will ensure continued growth in the future, have already been implemented or are in the process of being implemented.

"With the integration of Space-as-a-Service offerings in the stationary market, the financing service for Marketplace products and the expansion of our refurbished offerings, we are making our Marketplace even more attractive - for customers and partners alike. With the expansion of new verticals such as DYI, sports and health, we want to reach new target groups in the long term. The roll-out of the Marketplace in three additional countries in the coming calendar year will also be a strong growth driver in order to achieve our declared goals by 2025/26," explains Christian Kollesch, Managing Director of MediaMarktSaturn Marketplace.

Refurbished products - new online store experience

The refurbished product offering has been further enhanced with the introduction of a new user experience design. The redesign provides customers with a clearer, more intuitive shopping experience and access to an even wider selection of refurbished products from marketplace sellers. Products are now categorized into three easy-to-understand quality levels based on availability: “Excellent”, “Very Good” and “Good”. These grades are based primarily on external signs of use and battery life, and guarantee full functionality. When products are available, customers can now find alternative refurbished offers from the Marketplace directly on the product detail page of the new device. 

However, the topic of refurbishment is not only receiving more attention online, but also in stores. In May, a pop-up store on the topic of sustainability opened in Tübingen, Germany, bringing the company's marketplace, sustainable product range and refurbishment to the brick-and-mortar stores for the first time.

Financing Service for Marketplace Products

At the end of July, MediaMarktSaturn also introduced the popular financing service for Marketplace products in Germany and will roll it out to other countries. As a result, customers benefit from an additional payment option in the Marketplace that enables them to set up individual financing plans and make larger purchases without having to pay the full amount immediately. Marketplace sellers can use an established financing option at MediaMarktSaturn and further increase the attractiveness of their offers and their sales potential.

Expansion of the Space-as-a-Service offering 

MediaMarktSaturn is continuing to expand its Space-as-a-Service offerings for marketplace sellers. In Germany, Spain and the Netherlands, the first spaces have already been rented by Marketplace sellers in the stores to present their products live on site. This offering allows sellers to tap into the company's extensive network of more than 1,000 stores and showcase their products to a broad audience in Experience Zones. In the future, customers will also be able to experience and test Marketplace products in their local stores, benefiting from an even wider range of products.

MediaMarktSaturn’s Approach to Digital Transformation

Digital transformation goes beyond implementing new technologies, it's about creating a mindset that embraces change, fosters innovation, and puts people at the heart of everything. We empower our employees to innovate and learn. We run activities, initiatives and programs that connect technology and people to ensure we deliver the best experience for employees and customers. That’s how we drive meaningful change that improves our operations and services.

Two events that reflect the company’s commitment to human-driven digital transformation, our internal innovative strength and our way of working together are the Innovation Days of MediaMarktSaturn Technology and the Finance GenAI Hackathon. These events were designed to harness the creativity and expertise of our employees, encouraging them to generate and prototype innovative ideas.

MediaMarktSaturn and the AI hub Dishbrain are taking off with the introduction of the "Dishbrain Awards". Unlike previous awards, the new award focuses for the first time on practical benefits as well as intelligent and user-friendly AI solutions for end consumers and small and medium-sized enterprises. Prizes will be awarded for ideas and application examples that make everyday life easier, more efficient and more cost-effective and solve complex problems. The application phase begins in fall 2024.

"MediaMarktSaturn has been supporting customers with technical innovations for over 40 years. It is therefore our duty to show them which AI solutions make sense for them and how they can positively change their lives. We want to help ensure that the use of AI applications progresses quickly and becomes a natural part of everyone's life. With the Dishbrain Award, we not only want to honor outstanding innovations, but also create a platform for new ideas and exchange," says Dr. Karsten Wildberger, CEO of MediaMarktSaturn. 

Six awards for AI entrepreneurs

The Dishbrain Award provides an opportunity to spotlight outstanding projects and applications of artificial intelligence in the business world and private life. In contrast to other awards, which focus on professionals and large companies, the award concentrates on users and small and medium-sized enterprises.

Companies and private idea providers are invited to submit their innovative solutions and successes for the following categories:

The goal is clear: a modern shopping experience for our customers across all channels. Omnichannel, the networking of online and offline channels, is MediaMarktSaturn's great strength, as is the focus on the customer and their needs. The company's motto is: the right format in the right place in order to be even closer to the customer and respond more individually to their needs. The stores and personal advice are MediaMarktSaturn's ace up its sleeve compared to its major competitors. MediaMarktSaturn also offers its partners unique opportunities to present their products. The Lighthouse, Core, Smart and Xpress store formats are being continuously developed and rolled out step by step in all countries; the second Lighthouse in Austria recently opened in Graz.
 

Since October 2022, MediaMarktSaturn has been using the term "Experience Electronics" to describe its repositioning - and at the same time the range of services for its customers. To accompany this, the Company has initiated a comprehensive marketing transformation. The award of the international media budget to the Publicis Group not only creates new synergies: MediaMarktSaturn is taking marketing to the next level of customer-centric and even more personalized communication. 

The right content, the right advice and the right service: In autumn 2022, MediaMarktSaturn launched its first international campaign concept for all countries in which the Company operates.

The Company has created strong proof points for its experience strategy with storytelling campaigns on the topic of mindfulness, such as for Valentine's Day or Christmas, colorful Black Friday communication and a new brand design for the digital age with an emphasis on the iconic "brand swirl". Hence, the focus is on the customer experience and personal advice. 

Michael Schuld, CCMO of MediaMarktSaturn, emphasizes: "Our brand is the centerpiece when it comes to further strengthening our brand purpose 'We create Experience Electronics to enrich people’s life'. Now we are taking the next logical step towards becoming an Experience Champion, also in regard to media."

Further development towards even more personalized and data-supported communication

The Company has just completed the tendering process for a new media agency, at the first time Europe-wide, to exploit the full opportunities also in the area of media, like MediaMarktSaturn did with the brand. The decision is the result of an almost eight-month, multi-stage process to which four major media agency networks were invited. This was the largest international pitch in MediaMarktSaturn's history. The aim of was to further optimize strategy and planning, increase efficiencies, and develop cutting-edge capabilities through data-driven, personalized communication.

The new set-up with the international Publicis media network ensures the right balance between global, efficient media management and locally adapted tactical implementation. Thanks to a new data-based platform, the full potential is exploited: from the creation and use of insights for optimized planning, to perfect targeting across channels, to comprehensive analytics and reporting. 

The consolidation of the agency network makes a new level of exchange between MediaMarktSaturn’s eleven countries possible. New technological possibilities in the ad-tech-stack area should also ensure more efficient use of the media budget and continuous optimization of campaign performance in real time. "We are creating a perfectly networked foundation that gives us new intelligence and new access to analytics. This will further boost our marketing in a data-driven way," explains Michael Schuld. 

The new media agency will manage a budget in the three-digit million range and will launch in October 2024. The pitch was accompanied nationally and internationally by the media management consultancy BRAIN, Munich.

Sponsored Brand Ads can now be booked in Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, Poland, Belgium, Switzerland and the Netherlands. MediaMarktSaturn is thus adding another attractive option to its product range and enabling its partners to leverage the entire funnel and increase brand awareness and visibility. The international roll-out of the new product is another important step towards achieving MediaMarktSaturn's goal of expanding its Retail Media business to € 45 million in sales by the end of the 2025/26 financial year.

"We have had a very good start to 2024 and have grown strongly. In our recently released Q2 results, we reported a fivefold increase in revenue for our Retail Media division. With our new Sponsored Brand Ads product, we want to continue this growth and offer our partners the best possible selection of products and services across the entire funnel," said Torsten Ahlers, Managing Director of Media-Saturn Marketing GmbH.

Four Retail Media products already available internationally

If a partner wants to highlight a special product via the search function in the MediaMarktSaturn webshops, Sponsored Product Ads are the right choice. In eight out of eleven countries, this is already available to partners as a self-service option. Partners or advertising agencies can manage and monitor their own budgets. The second product in this onsite area is the recently launched Sponsored Brand Ad. It allows partners to focus on their entire brand, e.g. an entire product line, to increase brand awareness (see image). Following a test phase, the SBA product will also be available in self-service. MediaMarktSaturn is marketing both products in cooperation with Criteo.

"For some time now, brands have been able to successfully run lower funnel campaigns with Sponsored Product Ads (SPA) to increase their sales on MediaMarktSaturn's websites. We are very proud to extend our partnership with MediaMarktSaturn with the launch of Sponsored Brand Ads (SBA). This display ad format combines branding and awareness elements with product images, enabling brands to activate awareness and branding campaigns on the retailer's sites. Brands and their agency partners can now run full funnel campaigns from a single platform and through their preferred booking channel, and track the impact of both formats together in a closed-loop attribution," said Sander Mes, Managing Director for Central Europe & MEA Enterprise at Criteo.

In addition, MediaMarktSaturn offers its partners detailed reports to give them a precise insight into the customer journeys. The fourth product is A+ Content, which is available in nine out of eleven countries. This allows partners to create even more exclusive and targeted product detail pages.

But this is just the beginning, Torsten Ahlers is already pointing the way forward: "With our four available retail media products, which we have rolled out in almost all countries, we have created a strong foundation and an attractive offering for our partners. Now we need to focus on other areas, such as Audience Extension, which we will continue to expand and standardize to define relevant audiences for advertisers based on our site visitors' data. In the future, we will also increasingly leverage our strengths as an omnichannel platform in retail media and offer our advertisers the opportunity to increase awareness of their brands and products directly at the POS through in-store advertising. We also see further economies of scale within the company, such as being able to offer our Retail Media products to our Marketplace sellers."

Ingolstadt, May 02, 2024

Europe's largest electronics retailer is setting an example with the opening of its first pop-up store in Germany dedicated to sustainability on May 2, 2024. In the centrally located boutique in the heart of Tübingen, customers will find a portfolio of particularly sustainable products, which the retailer identifies with its own BetterWay logo, refurbished electrical appliances and sustainable offers that can otherwise only be found on the online marketplace.

"In line with the 'Experience Electronics' strategy, our new pop-up store is the ideal opportunity to show customers live and in color what we offer in terms of sustainability. At the same time, we want to gain new experience of how we can integrate the online marketplace with its products and sellers into our stores", explains Hubert Kluske, COO MediaMarktSaturn Germany.    

The new store concept is part of the omnichannel strategy that MediaMarkt-Saturn is pursuing on its way from a pure product seller to an integrated solution provider. The Marketplace plays an important strategic role in improving the company's profitability, concentrating its own core range on selected growth areas and offering customers an even more extensive product range at the same time. The pop-up store brings the previous online-only offering to the physical sales area and provides sellers with a new presentation platform. 

Sustainable product range and lots of advice

In the pop-up store, customers can find offers from various product groups such as smartphones/tablets/smartwatches and e-mobility. For better orientation, MediaMarktSaturn labels particularly sustainable products with its own BetterWay logo. The company adheres to the criteria of independent testing organizations such as the Blue Angel, EPEAT and TÜV Rheinland and has also defined its own criteria. So-called refurbished devices, which are professionally refurbished and reconditioned, can also be purchased. 

MediaMarktSaturn's own purchase service also offers customers in the pop-up store the opportunity to simply exchange used electrical goods for gift cards. In cooperation with the provider Foxway, the devices are refurbished or repaired and any existing data is deleted. This means they can be resold and given a second life in the spirit of the circular economy.

The employees in the store are specially trained in sustainability and can also inform customers about opportunities to get involved in local sustainability projects on request.

Pioneering work in green Tübingen

When it came to choosing a location for the store, the decision was quickly made in favor of the environmentally conscious, tech-savvy university city of Tübingen. Centrally located in the city center, the store is easy to reach even without a car - in keeping with the concept of sustainability. The sustainable approach is also stringently pursued in the store design: Everything from the previous store infrastructure to the existing furniture in the store space used will be reused for the store. 

The concept is also to be launched in other cities in Germany. Further information on the MediaMarktSaturn BetterWay initiative can be found here.

The Marketplace is an important factor for MediaMarktSaturn in expanding its core assortment and offering its customers an even more extensive assortment. At the same time, the company wants to further improve its profitability through the additional sales channel. By the end of the 2025/26 financial year, the Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) of the Marketplace is expected to amount to 750 million euros. After EUR 65 million in the 2021/22 financial year, the Marketplace's GMV amounted to EUR 137 million at the end of 2022/23. As a country with a strong online affinity, the Netherlands is another important building block in achieving the target set.

The focus of the Marketplace products is on expanding the core assortment, which is sold directly via MediaMarktSaturn in over 1,000 stores or in the MediaMarkt or Saturn online stores. In addition, MediaMarktSaturn is further expanding its product portfolio on the Marketplace in areas such as gaming, fitness, health, e-mobility, refurbished products, trend products and seasonal products. The availability of goods will also be further improved with the Marketplace: if a particular product is temporarily not available in MediaMarktSaturn's core assortment, the online store will automatically refer to the matching product in the Marketplace.

"The launch of the Marketplace in the Netherlands as the fourth country after Germany, Spain and Austria is an important step in our omnichannel platform strategy. In the Netherlands in particular, we are seeing above-average online demand from customers compared to other countries - the Marketplace has great growth potential here and fits perfectly into our strategy, which focuses on the customer and their needs," explains Christian Kollesch, Director International Marketplace at MediaMarktSaturn.

Customers can rely on the high-quality standards of MediaMarktSaturn as the market leader for consumer electronics in Europe for the products and processes on the Marketplace. Sellers are intensively checked by the Marketplace team and it is ensured that the specified quality standards are met. For the roll-out in the Netherlands, additional new Marketplace sellers from the Netherlands were also added, who can also guarantee 'next-day delivery'.

Generative AI is on everyone's lips, in the news, on social media and now also freely accessible to everyone on the web. Some see it as a revolution in the way we will work, live and interact with each other. Others are skeptical and still see many unanswered questions.