Over 1000 participants…
The online retailer congress in Kassel, organized by the software solution plentymarkets, took place for the 6th time last weekend, and has had an impressive development. Originally started as a user meeting with 80 participants, plenty now has over 80 employees alone and was able to welcome over 1000 participants to the congress at the weekend.
After an open day on Friday, 35 presentations and speeches took place in Kassel’s Kongress-Palais throughout Saturday. It is extremely positive to note that the proportion of independent lecturers there has increased significantly and that the advertising character in the “purchased” lecture slots was also much more discreet than in the past.
…over 35 lectures and over 50 exhibitors…
The day was introduced by Jan Griesel, who recapitulated the impressive development of plenty and presented the very interesting roadmap for 2013. In 2012 the motto was “e-commerce the way I want it”, i.e. the greater customization and configurability of plenty, for 2013 the beginning of the path towards a comprehensive business software is presented with the first step of implementing one that can also be used for internal project management ticket system. From a technological point of view, interesting approaches were also presented to make plenty available as a client solution. However, we will shortly go into the content-related roadmap separately and in more detail. In this respect, it was a thoroughly interesting start, even if the applause that was apparently expected from the speaker did not materialize – but this may also have been due to the early morning hour and the fact that the listeners were largely down-to-earth dealers and not hip startups whose business model is primarily enthusiasm .
Afterwards, keynotes and numerous lectures continued in the afternoon. One or the other event (such as lectures from Ebay and Amazon) was clearly overcrowded, however, a move to the large hall, which remained unused the whole afternoon, might have been appropriate here.
An accompanying trade fair with more than 50, albeit largely well-known, e-commerce service providers rounded off the program.
…in the sign of the professionalization of online trading
The basic tenor of many presentations, in addition to the trend towards professionalization of small and medium-sized online trade, was first and foremost to be read from the professionalization of the congress itself, and the spirit of optimism about the continued rapid market growth, as well as warning words. Because of course consolidation will also go hand in hand with professionalization and many a retailer will find himself caught in the “growth trap”, as Peter Höschl of Shopanbieter.de clarified, and are faced with the question of either growing further (and financing it!) in order to meet the increasing demands, or stagnating at the personal performance limit at the existing level and gradually falling back and losing touch.
At the end of the day, Jochen Krisch from exitingcommerce compiled interesting facts and figures about the e-commerce market, which you can also read about HERE. But of course you have to take into account that this is primarily a look at the overall market and at the big players. The extent to which this then affects one’s own situation must always be answered individually.
In addition, some key figures or segmentations are of course not really clear-cut. If the online market is (understandably) actually being driven by those who are increasingly ordering online, the information that 20% of Germans make more than 10 purchases online each year (out of hundreds of annual consumer decisions that are basically web-enabled) is of course rather profane. And with all due respect: my better half manages (at least felt) 10 online orders a month – and that alone Mangoes… *sigh* But admittedly they also have cute clothes for our little daughter.
Anyway. The official day ended with the presentation of the plenty award, this year with a new focus. Instead of shop design, growth and sales were the selection criteria. What exactly distinguished the bronze to gold winners remained somewhat unclear, despite short statements from the award winners. Perhaps an official eulogy by the jury would be better and more exciting there. And since the plenty marketing department was sentenced to teach themselves how to compose in order to provide appropriate dramaturgical accompaniment to the award ceremony next year, this year’s somewhat lame conclusion to the official day 2014 will certainly be the absolute highlight.
The evening ended at the networking party, drinks were included in the ticket price. At least until we left the party around 11, the “networking” was in the foreground and there was little to be seen of “party” despite the loud music. This can certainly be improved – if nobody wants to dance anyway, you could let the music play a little more discreetly at the beginning and then maybe switch to the (but then animated) party mode from 10. Just as a suggestion, there must still be room for improvement.
On Sunday, after bright sunshine on Saturday, there was even snowfall, which is obligatory for the plenty congress, and we made our way home completely relaxed. And to finally clarify this and to prevent misunderstandings: “In love with Kassel” is the name of our hotel package in the Mercure, which is highly recommended for the price of €200 for 2 nights in a double room (including brunch, thermal bath menu and champagne from the room) 🙂
To the conclusion: It’s not just the plentymarkets software that’s blossoming from year to year, the congress is also developing impressively towards the start of the year event for medium-sized online retailers, and not just for retailers who use plentymarkets.
This entry was posted on 5. März 2013 at 10:38 and is filed under Blog, Plentymarkets. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.