In 2015, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action responded to the challenges faced by the retail sector as a result of the profound changes taking place in this area by launching a Retail Trade Dialogue Platform. The objective behind this initiative was to pick up on the most important issues associated with this change, such as ensuring local supply for citizens, keeping city centres attractive, coping with digitisation and competition, and to look at its impact on professionals working in the sector. Ultimately, the platform sought to open up new prospects for retailers and all others affected by these developments.

The focus was on a dialogue between the relevant stakeholders, i.e. companies and business associations, academia, the trade union, the Federal Government, the Länder and municipalities. How can the retailers, municipalities, Länder and the Federal Government respond to the far-reaching structural change? What are the challenges for the employees? These and other questions were discussed with the stakeholders in workshops, and ways forward were mapped out.

The project was supported by an advisory board (in German) (PDF, 724 KB) consisting of 24 members from retail associations, the trade unions, companies, academia, the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce, the Länder and the top municipal associations. The advisory board was chaired by Dr Sabine Hepperle, Director-General responsible for SME policy at the Economic Affairs Ministry. The co-chairs were Stefan Genth, director of the Handelsverband Deutschland (HDE - Germany Trade Association), and Stefanie Nutzenberger, member of the federal executive of the Verdi trade union.

At the heart of the Retail Dialogue Platform were five series of workshops, each consisting of between two and four workshops on various topics. Each of these workshops were attended by representatives of business, trade unions, business associations, chambers, municipalities and cities, the Federation and the Länder, and from academia. The Cologne Institute for Retail Research was in charge of coordinating the work of the platform on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action. It organised the process itself, coordinated with the stakeholders on substance, and analysed the overall project.

The platform sought to involve all different kinds of stakeholders to ensure maximum support for the solutions proposed by the platform on this complex and sensitive societal issue. The results of the series of workshops will be presented at an event entitled Fresh prospects for the retail sector on 6 June 2017.

Overview of the detailed results

In their recommendations, the members of the Retail Trade Dialogue Platform have spoken out in favour of pilot projects that would see new cooperation between different retail companies. This would allow these firms to pool their staff and their retail and warehouse space and thus cut costs. Furthermore, cooperation between several different municipalities could ensure that citizens have access to local shopping facilities. For instance, it would be possible to establish small-scale department stores that would also cooperate with providers of different kinds of services.

The main outcomes of the work completed by the Retail Trade Dialogue Platform can be found in the brochure ‘New Prospects for the Retail Sector’ (in German), which is available for download here.

To see the reports on the five series of workshops or a summary of individual workshops, please go to:

• Digitisation and technological challenges
• Prospects for vibrant towns and cities
• Prospects for rural areas
• Prospects for work and occupations

• Competition policy