What do consumers really do? How do they navigate the online and offline worlds? Is multichannel retail merely an academic concept, or is it a reality for customers? And above all: What can retailers and manufacturers learn from the answers to these questions?

These questions were investigated by ECE (the market leader in downtown shopping malls in Europe) and Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, in collaboration with the Otto Group and Union Investment. The report "What the customer really wants" is the result.

Conclusions: Online shopping is becoming ever more important: In Germany, although only 7% of transactions are done online, Internet shopping accounts for 16% of sales revenues - and rising. But brick-and-mortar retailers should not despair in the face of online competition. Conventional shopping is still most Germans' favorite way of shopping - regardless of online price wars or the new generation of digital natives with their high affinity for the Internet.

More information:

• English: Multichannel study: "What the customer really wants"
  (short version, PDF, 698 KB)
• Deutsch: Multichannel-Studie „Dem Kunden auf der Spur“
  (Kurzversion, PDF, 713 KB)