“If we want to change something, we have to change ourselves”

Maybe that’s the reason why things aren’t going well in our industry anymore. People say: What I’m wearing is okay. I don’t have to embrace this or that trend because what I’m wearing works. In addition, many creative teams in the industry rely on the same sources. That doesn’t exactly lead to more diversity either. In addition, market competitors are leaving the market, which means the range is also becoming increasingly thin. This is not good for our industry. I always say we need more innovation, more courage, more fashion. With the great risk that product managers will answer me: That’s too extreme, then sales will have to be high again. But that’s not exactly what I mean. It’s about ‘Tamarizing’ fashionable topics. Developing a collection is always a balancing act. It has to be fashionable and attractive, it has to be new and not too extreme – and I’m talking about Tamaris, a volume brand. And there are yesterday’s shoes and tomorrow’s shoes. We have to manage to successfully sell new shoes to retailers. This is more difficult in times of uncertainty. But we find that customers who shop boldly even in challenging times have more success.

Let’s come to the #schuhhandelhasfukunft initiative. What are the key themes that you think this group has achieved?

I have to say that I was a little skeptical at first when the initiative started. We are committed and actively participate in two working groups on the topics of order and efficiency. I notice that a lot has been achieved in terms of efficiency. This has been my favorite topic for years anyway. I think it’s good that everyone was at the table, that there wasn’t just talk, but also action. Now it is important to bring the issues into the industry on a broad front. Because we are still leaving efficiencies behind. I have already emphasized several times that our competitors are the verticals. And we must respond to this by behaving like verticals ourselves. The topic of data exchange helps to improve timing and make us faster so that our products are on site at the right time. The more stationary retailers see these advantages, the better the collections for stationary retail will become. I once said quite provocatively that if we only get data from onliners, then at some point there will only be collections for onliners. I hope the initiative has brought lasting change to the industry. This also affects our company: NOS is dealing with a large project that we now want to intensify again. As a fashionable group of companies, we are also increasingly realizing that a healthy NOS basis is also a foundation for retail sales. We also played an active role in the Elvis issue.

There was a lot of discussion surrounding the initiative about trade fairs and trade fair dates. But their real success lies in the area of ​​efficiency. Do you think this needs to be highlighted more?

I actually think the initiative has achieved huge success in this area. And many other topics can arise from this. This has been somewhat lost in the debate about a new trade fair. That’s a shame. Ultimately, the aim is to ensure that as many retailers as possible remain in the market. That’s good for all of us. Particularly in the area of ​​data exchange, persuasion still needs to be done. We spoke to thousands of retailers personally during the lockdowns and wanted to know what the reasons were for why things weren’t working. One main reason we were repeatedly told was the cost. I’m not sure if that’s an objection or an excuse. What’s interesting is that dealers are generally happy to use PRICATs because it saves them work. But they often don’t want to give anything in return. If we fail to communicate the benefits to retailers, we’ve done something wrong. But if we don’t have the data, we can’t convince them. We as the Wortmann Group really do a lot. Our customers can see sales in our dealer portal. It also shows which items are still available. You can reorder directly from the merchandise management. These are very simple things, but they increase efficiency. Apart from that they also improve the collections. But costs are discussed far too often. Also with the new learning platform, by the way.