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Supermarket in 2020 Reply from Gymnasium Ohmoor – Hamburg, Germany Introduction:

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

We proudly present you our ideas to the customer´s food shopping behavior in the year

2020.

Since we experienced only the German supermarkets, we agreed to focus on the innovation

of supermarkets in Germany.

Hereby the demographic change in Germany plays a certain role. Looking back to the change

of supermarkets in the last couple of years, we realized that there weren’t that many

changes.

Therefore we presumed that futuristic models like shopping by face scanning will not be the

case in 2020. Instead, we concentrated on further improvements in specific branches.

But growing up in a generation in which smartphones and social media play an important

role, we also included a perspective to what could lie ahead.

Situation in Germany today:

To have a better understanding for our ideas it might be helpful to know as much as

necessary about Germany’s supermarket situation today.

The big leading supermarkets like "Rewe","Edeka","Aldi","Lidl" and "Penny", which are

located through all cities, offer long opening hours (7 a.m. – 11 p.m.) and a large assortment.

Special offers also dominate the food market.

Supermarkets have to compete with small local markets, which are not only specialized on

certain products, like fruits and vegetables, but are also providing personal advice and seem

therefore more reliable, while major corporations are eyed suspiciously due to several

incidents like EHEC and the horsemeat scandal, which damaged the image of the food

industry.

Apart from that, the food sector still booms. New, fresh designs and colors, appetizing scents

and special arrangements of products play psychological tricks on us, just like making us feel

comfortable and buy products we didn’t go for. The eco-trend has also reached the general

public, buying it in the attempt of receiving high quality as well as having a good conscience.

In times in which the internet reigns, online shopping has become very popular. Frozen foods

or oven-ready meals can be delivered home easily.

One click or call and the food is almost there. Since Germany is an aging society, those

delivery services are creating every day’s life easier.

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Not only old people, who aren’t able to manage this essential shopping on their own

anymore, but also busy people with a strict timetable profit from this solution.

How and where will customers shop in 2020? Nowadays online shopping is provided in many areas, such like the food shopping branch. That’s why people will have the chance to shop online and order their products from home. They can choose if they are going to pick up the products directly in the supermarket or if they are going to take advantage of the delivery system, bringing their shopping directly to any address at any time for a small extra credit. Especially older or busy people would profit from this idea. In the shop itself there will be the possibility for the customer to scan the products on himself/herself so the market would make more profit by hiring less staff. Since the new eco trend has also reached Germany, more awareness in food shopping regarding the health and source is expected by us. Therefore the demand on organic products will rise drastically.

What eating habits will customers have and what kind of food will they eat? Wholesome pick-up products for busy people or students will be available in the markets as well as in the online shops. For instance, you can order pre-packed breakfast boxes for children or adults. Although this service is already offered by many other delivery services, which are specialized on this, we expect the customers to buy and order everything they need at one place and don´t look for a cheaper alternative. That way shopping is a lot easier for the customer. To offer such a great variety of supply there will be big central markets located in metropolises like Hamburg, Munich and Frankfurt instead of small markets, which can’t compete concerning the diversity of products.

Still there will be differences in the shopping habits of the people. One group of health-conscious people will spend more money on their food, because the quality is important to them while cheaper food often will be gene manipulated.

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What kind of information will be valuable and how will the customer be informed?

For making our ideas profitable we first need to draw attention to the new possibilities of advertising them. Information sources will appear at banners on mobile applications or on e-mails to reach busy people. For the older generation of Germany we will stick to old patterns like sending advertising by mail. Furthermore the internet pages will show detailed information about the products specifically about all the ingredients and where they are produced. Also, the information will be given directly in the supermarket in form of little post-it labels underneath the products, right next to the price.

Futuristic Idea: In this part of our work you will find out about our ideas on how the stores could possibly develop in a futuristic preview (after 2020). Please keep in mind this market concept is not for the masses - it is just meant for bigger cities and would not negatively affect the local retailers, which are needed in our aging society. You can already find such new technologies sporadically in a preliminary stage. (For example: I found a wine-advisor in a supermarket, which offers help for choosing the right wine) A key focus of the "Next Generation Supermarket" will be put on integrating mobile devices in the shopping process. (Whatever kind of mobile device will be out then, e.g. smartphones, tablets, glasses, holograms, …) The main reason for using these devices is to have the possibility of connecting the device to the supermarket. In order to make this possible we need applications and defined product areas. For connecting the device to a certain area, technologies like Wi-Fi (Wireless Lan), NFC (Near Field Communication), Bluetooth or the next generation technology can be employed. The minute you enter the supermarket the mobile device will connect to the internal media system. Your device will offer the opportunity to start the app/program (if installed already) or it will offer to download the appropriate software. As soon as the software has started, you see a 3D model of the supermarket (assumption for not having to create a model for every branch is that every branch is constructed in the same layout inside). Now you can import a shopping list (e.g. from your notes). With this shopping list the program creates the perfect route for you through the supermarket. During the navigation process the application/program will advertise products of general interest (like milk, eggs, water) or, if you are a recurring customer, it will analyze your regular buying habits and will point out those goods.

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When you have reached a shelf, the software also shows where you can find the good you are looking for in this shelf. If you walk through the market without an imported shopping list your device will connect to certain market areas (like fruits, frozen-pizzas, sweets, drinks, etc. ) when you reach them. When connected to the area a new window will open in your user interface which could look

in concept like this:

Area of Frozen Pizzas: You are able to see: Special offers, sales and pizza types. You can search for a product and get information like: Price, sales, customer reviews, how and where it was produced, cooking recipes, ingredients and calories. Furthermore it will be possible to preorder online (via stationary computers or mobile devices) and grab and go the ordered products, while paying extra for the packing service. As soon as you have finished your shopping tour you can enter the payment area. Here, there will be only one queue, which means a self – pay cash point is open for the customer to pay. Guides will assist you and will also watch, whether anybody tries to steal something (there are also cameras). In conclusion, this supermarket-concept aims at people who want to be able to interact with the product, to get more information about it (for example caused by scandals, like the horsemeat scandal). For the supermarket it offers many possibilities to influence the customer and his/her decisions in order to have more economic success.

Sales Pizzas Sorts

Pizza A 42%

Pizza B 23%

Discount

Pizza X 2 €

1€

Offer

with meat Pizza C 17%

Pizza D 5%

with fish

Pizza E 3%

Pizza F 2%

vegetarian Pizza G 1,5%

Pizza H 1%

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SWOT: We have made a SWOT-analysis in order to give you a better idea of what is good and bad about this futuristic concept:

Strengths:

Integration of mobile devices o easy access to products and

special offers o shopping list and navigation o analyzable shopping behavior

of customers o Information about certain

products

Faster shopping

Weaknesses:

Possible small target group only

just for bigger cities

navigation kills possibility of hiding cheaper products below eye-level and other tricks like that

Opportunities:

opening new economic field

increasing need for mobile devices

gather data about shopping behavior of customers in an automated way, allowing deep market analysis

Threats:

high initial costs

possibly low customer acceptance

Conclusion: All in all, we think that by the year 2020 there won't be so many big changes in customer’s behavior, but we can imagine, that for example technological progress will influence the customers shopping behavior in different ways (e.g. special service offers) and there might be changes in terms of food offers.