Outlet City Metzingen & Tradebyte – first of its kind to launch a marketplace

Milestone reached through great collaboration between Outlet City Metzingen and Tradebyte.

Key
 Figure

6 months

from start to go-live

The Story

Every city has a luxury mile, but only one city is a luxury mile. A day at Outletcity Metzingen is so much more than just another shopping day. It’s an experience. A unique blend of fashion, design, architecture, nature and relaxation make it a very special place to visit. Outletcity curates it’s brands, stores, their online shop and every event to deliver an extraordinary shopping experience.
Outletcity Metzingen is home to over 130 brands, including Burberry, Fendi, Gucci, MCM, Michael Kors, Nike, Prada, Polo Ralph Lauren and the world’s largest BOSS outlet. Carefully designed interiors lovingly recreate the feel of flagship brand stores and position Metzingen as a unique shopping spot for fashionistas attracting more than 4 million visitors each year from 185 countries around the world. The people who shop here are as cosmopolitan as the designer labels the city carries, making it a true pioneer amongst factory outlet centres across Europe.
As the largest outlet in Europe* Outletcity Metzingen acts like a magnet for fashion lovers from around the world. Outletcity Metzingen has a history of digital pioneering. Launching its online shop in 2012, HOLY AG, the outlet’s operator, laid the foundations for the complete digitalisation of the business. A simple vision, both inspirational and motivational – to offer the best shopping experience to visitors at every touchpoint. This goal is pursued each and every day with real passion and a sense of innovation and as the home town of Hugo Boss, Metzingen can be proud to be part of the long, flourishing tradition of the textile industry.
*According to sales area or size – market report „Outlet Centres in Europe“, S. 25 (Dezember 2020) by ecostra GmbH, www.ecostra.de/studien_und_marktberichte/outlet-centres-europe_2020-12.pdf

The Trigger

Following the successful launch of its online store in 2012, Outletcity Metzingen recognised that the time was right to complement its customer proposition with a marketplace offering. Once again proving its adaptability and innovative spirit, sealing its position as a pioneer in the outlet field. Strengthening the link between bricks-and-mortar and online retail, complementing both sales channels without introducing direct competition between the two.

What were the motivations?

  • Expanding the product range
  • Introducing new revenue streams
  • Increased conversion rate
  • Easy access to new brands or assortments
  • Curated marketplace, retaining a high level of control
  • Scalable growth

The Strategy

One major challenge when introducing a marketplace offering is how to integrate the new business model into an existing wholesale business. It all begins with the selection of the appropriate legal model – who owns the products? Dependencies must also be taken into account, from existing IT infrastructure to customer relationships and any other processes the business operates. In particular, third-party product data must meet the structural requirements of the marketplace, ensuring they contribute positively to customer experience.

At Tradebyte, we offer a comprehensive range of enabling packages to help retail partners such as Outletcity Metzingen build their marketplace. Our services and support go far beyond the purely technical, covering everything needed for a successful launch.

Working together, we defined a scalable setup, enabling the marketplace operator to partner with an existing customer pool of over 700 brands from day one, along with a standardised connection process for new luxury and premium brands.

What’s so special about our collaborative approach is that it does not end at the launch. This is when it truly begins, as we design for rapid, scalable growth.  In addition to our technical and software-based solutions, we also offer a wide selection of managed services to support premium and luxury brands with their integration into platforms. Technical solutions are provided through our core TB.One product, along with our dedicated vendor portal. Depending on the needs of the marketplace, or those of its partners, we can support a variety of different integration models, from self-service to an almost fully Managed Account Service.

Ultimately, the optimal setup for Outletcity Metzingen was a result of a combination of highly professional preparation and a thorough analysis of the different options for marketplace business models. We started with a workshop to closely examine Outletcity Metzingen’s data classifications, technical setup and business processes. We also took a deep look at the existing structure of the business and adjusted where necessary, balancing best practices alongside the established success of the company and the specific needs of the channel.  Throughout the technical initiation and the pilot integration phase, the Tradebyte project team remained in close contact with the Outletcity managers and brands, resulting in significant learnings on all sides.

The Result

Outletcity Metzingen was able to take its first pilot partners live within a very short period of time. As a result, they were perfectly positioned for the official launch and ready to connect with further partners, particularly those in the premium and luxury categories. Outletcity can now successfully scale its marketplace business quickly and easily. Furthermore, any future roadmap can be defined based on the specific goals of the channel. In the case of OCM, the roadmap largely focuses on a collaborative approach, working with Tradebyte to identify suitable partners to add to their network. OCM also relies on Tradebyte to support marketing decisions, provide expert advice on topics including industry trends and ongoing support to execute their strategy.
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What the Customer says.

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Our marketplace gives our partners all the flexibility they need when it comes to their brand’s online presence. Tradebyte was a reliable and cooperative partner during the whole evolving phase, and we’re looking forward to continuing our work together!

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Stefanie Nover

Head of Key Account Management