Marketing

Interview

“Our consumers expect us to serve them through the online-channel.”

Founded in 1886, Hunkemöller is one of the largest lingerie chains in Europe. The Dutch company employs more than 2.600 people and runs more than 450 shops in 15 countries. Hunkemöller has been active on the internet since 2001 and launched its e-commerce strategy at first in The Netherlands. In 2009 a complete new eshop was launched in Germany, followed by Belgium in 2010. E-commerce is a profitable and fast growing channel for Hunkemöller.

Stores end up being downloaded more and more to mobile devices

m.bahn.de or m.tagesschau.de – the “m” is getting increasingly important on the Internet. There are more and more web pages specifically for mobile devices. Retailers are strongly getting in on the act. It’s practically a must to have apps, while the mobile shop for smartphones is more of an option. M-commerce runs alongside E-commerce. Meanwhile, far from all consumers are actually online. And a lot is also happening in the classic World Wide Web.

Piggy-backing on customer service from brick-and mortar stores was around even before online shops came around

Category management is an essential field of research for Professor Hendrik Schröder. Since 1996, he holds a Chair at the University of Duisburg-Essen. He does not think much of trendy terms such as omni-channel marketing. Customers have always wanted to be served through all possible respective channels. They have always looked for good consulting service and then still bought the product where it was the cheapest.