Digitale Maßnahmen der Kundenkommunikation im inhabergeführten Einzelhandel zwischen kurzfristiger Reaktion auf die Coronapandemie und zukunftsfähiger Strategie

Owner-managed retail faces special challenges when introducing and establishing digital customer communication measures. This article examines which measures have been introduced in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic and which of these measures may be particularly sustainable. In addition, the importance of regional networks in knowledge transfer via digital measures is considered. For the study, an online survey of owners was carried out in the three federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt in March 2022 and was supplemented by five expert interviews in April and May 2022. A large-scale trade study by the Cologne Chamber of Industry and Commerce and the ibi Research Institute Regensburg from 2020 was used to compare the results obtained. As a result of the study, digital visibility was found to be of particular importance for the preservation of owner-managed retail stores in the future. Furthermore, social media are represented as a suitable instrument with their prospectively provided selling function. In addition, sustainable and individual measures could be identified through differentiated consideration of sectors and target groups as well as different approaches to entering digital customer communication.