bonprix ‘fashion connect’ wins ‘Stores of the Year 2020’ award

The radically customer-centric, digitally assisted and adaptive bonprix ‘fashion connect’ store was honoured with a special prize at the 16th German Retail Property Congress in Berlin yesterday evening, where it received the prestigious ‘Stores of the Year 2020’ award. The jury of retail experts praised the consistent approach, which combines the best of the online and offline worlds to create a new and unique shopping experience. The ‘Stores of the Year’ retail property award has been presented annually since 2005 by the German Retail Association (HDE) to innovative and creative store concepts.

‘In the almost one year since we opened, we have received enormous support and interest not only from our customers, but also from the media, experts, competitors and the entire industry. This shows how important open and transparent exchange is in order to shape the retail world of tomorrow together,’ says Rien Jansen, Managing Director of bonprix Handelsgesellschaft and responsible for purchasing, marketing and retail. ‘Receiving the “Stores of the Year” award shortly before our first anniversary is further confirmation of the bold path we have taken, and I share it with pride and gratitude with everyone involved in the “fashion connect” concept.’

The bonprix “fashion connect” store was developed over a period of around two and a half years in collaboration with an interdisciplinary team of bonprix experts, Otto Group specialists and external partners – including dan pearlman, dgroup, Vizona, Mieloo & Alexander, apploft, GK Software and SAP – opened on 14 February 2019 in a prime city centre location on Hamburg's Mönckebergstraße. Shopping in the store is done via smartphone, with the bonprix app guiding customers through the purchasing process. Since day one, the technology has been running smoothly, demonstrating the possibilities of modern processes and digital assistance in retail. Through their continuous feedback, customers provide important insights for the further development of the concept, which is constantly changing and being expanded with new features in line with the ‘learning store’ concept. The aim is to systematically eliminate classic weaknesses in retail and make the shopping experience increasingly convenient.

‘Without our customers, who have accompanied us on this journey from the very beginning and who continue to provide us with valuable input, we would never have been able to realise this radical idea,’ says Daniel Füchtenschnieder, Managing Director and Concept Manager at bonprix Retail. ‘Together, we are developing “fashion connect” a little further every day and are steadily moving closer to our vision of a fully connected shopping experience.’ bonprix is currently focusing on exploiting the multichannel and retargeting potential of the concept. An important milestone in this regard will be the introduction of endless aisle elements in the first quarter, which will allow online orders to be placed from the store in the spirit of an extended product shelf.

At this year's ‘Stores of the Years’ award, bonprix received a special prize for its ‘fashion connect’ concept. The special prize recognises particularly unusual approaches that offer clear added value over traditional store concepts. The jury particularly praised the foresight and courage of ‘fashion connect’, which uniquely combines classic analogue shopping with the advantages of the digital online shopping world. Consumers can expect a revolutionary shopping experience that efficiently evolves through interaction with customers and constant updates, becoming a self-learning, intelligent future store.

The ‘Stores of the Year’ award was presented for the 16th time by the German Retail Association (HDE) in a total of five categories (Home/Living, Food, Fashion, Concept Store, Out of Line) as well as a special prize. The applications were judged according to their degree of innovation, customer benefit, value creation potential, experiential value, role model function and unique selling point.

Further links https://www.fashion-connect.store/ https://einzelhandel.de/veranstaltungenpreise/storesoftheyear