Commerce in Transition: Shaping the Future Between Crisis and Digitalization
Transformation in Retail
There is a well-known saying: retail means change. The retail industry has always had to continuously adapt to new and evolving demands to respond to changing conditions. Retail is constantly transforming due to technological advancements, shifting customer needs, and global economic developments, such as recent trends in tariffs and increasing protectionism.
Current Challenges in Online and Brick-and-Mortar Retail
Retail is at a historical turning point. Technological innovation, changing consumer behavior, and external shocks such as the pandemic, inflation, and geopolitical crises have fundamentally reshaped the industry. To remain successful today, companies must act faster, become more digital, and prioritize customer-centric strategies – across all channels.
Brick-and-Mortar Retail: Declining Foot Traffic and the Digital Balancing Act
Many retailers and chain stores are struggling with falling customer footfall, rising operational costs, and continued online competition. City centers are losing appeal, while expectations for service, consultation, and availability continue to rise. At the same time, the pressure is growing to implement digital services such as Click & Collect, mobile payment, or digital customer loyalty – often with limited resources.
Challenges in Brick-and-Mortar Retail
- Decline in real revenues despite rising costs
- Shortage of skilled labor and high employee turnover
- Dependence on high-street locations with decreasing walk-in traffic
- Lack of digital processes and interfaces
Online Retail: Growth Pressure and Platform Dependency
Once considered a booming industry, online retail is now facing new limitations. Consumer expectations are high: fast delivery, seamless user experience, and personalized offers are no longer optional – they are essential. At the same time, pressure on margins, high return rates, and growing dependency on marketplaces like Amazon and Zalando are increasing.
Challenges in Online Retail
- ising costs in logistics, IT, and customer acquisition
- High return rates and low profit margins
- Technological complexity (ERP, shop systems, payment, CRM)
- Platform dependency and declining visibility in a competitive landscape
My References
Hugo Boss – Premium Fashion in Global Retail
HUGO BOSS is one of the world’s leading companies in the premium segment of the apparel market. With a strong focus on quality, design, and brand staging, the company sets standards in international fashion retail. Through innovative omnichannel strategies, modern store architecture, and future-oriented digitalization projects, HUGO BOSS remains a model of excellence in fashion retail – and a valued reference customer on the path to a digital-agile future.
REWE – Innovation and Responsibility in Grocery Retail
The REWE Group is one of the leading retail and tourism companies in Europe. With a broad network of stores, a strong online presence, and a consistent focus on sustainability, REWE actively shapes the future of grocery retail. From digital services and modern logistics solutions to sustainable product strategies – REWE combines economic strength with social responsibility. A strong partner in retail – and a valuable reference customer for digital transformation.
Henrik Milthers Head of eCommerce Projects Hugo Boss AG
Mid of 2022 Marc took over our strategic E-Commerce Project Optimize Post Purchase Communication. The project delivers great value for Hugo Boss by increasing the traffic on our Online-Shop and the chance to deliver personalized marketing content for our customers in transaction mails and app.
The OPPC Project was managed by Marc as IT Project Manager together with one colleague from my team. The project was pretty challenging due to high complexity. We had to perform changes along the whole process chain starting in Salesforce Commerce Cloud via Hugo Boss Service Layer and CRM to SAP Retail, SAP AFS and SAP EWM. This was necessary to achieve our project goals. Marc has a strong organizational talent and great technical knowledge. We also had to have a strong focus on IT security because the process is dealing with GDPR relevant data. As a team we were able to achieve our goals and generate a significant increase in NetSales with marketing content in our transaction mails and app.
Optimize Post Purchase Communication Project (OPPC)
OPPC is an international Hugo Boss project across Europe and North America, designed to optimize the after-sales process following an online purchase. The entire communication via email and app push notifications was redesigned and rebuilt using the Adobe Experience Cloud.
The goal was to provide customers with transparent status updates throughout the order and delivery process. Numerous systems along the value chain are involved, from Salesforce Commerce Cloud and CRM Dynamics / Azure Cloud to SAP logistics and inventory solutions, and external logistics partners like DHL and UPS.
A key foundation for successful implementation was the development of a modern event-driven architecture. All systems involved emit events when the order status changes. These events then trigger a personalized message via email or app push notification.
The main challenges included legal requirements, particularly GDPR compliance. If customer consent was given, personalized advertising based on purchase history was also integrated into the after-sales communication. This significantly increased traffic to the Hugo Boss online shop and boosted net sales.
Agile methods were applied in the project. One of the first steps was the implementation of an extensive feature toggle.
This toggle allowed runtime switching between the existing and new implementations for each country in Europe and North America. Over 15 months, a total of 30 production deployments were completed, realizing the concept of Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery at Hugo Boss.
Project Highlights
- IT Security - Hybrid architecture (on-premise & public cloud)
- Legal - Processes involving GDPR-relevant data & advertising consent
- High complexity - End-to-end process from shop to middleware, CRM, SAP billing, and logistics
- Successful change management - After-sales process transformation
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- Digitalization
- Artificial Intelligence
- E-commerce
- Cloud
- Software Development
- Agile & Lean Practices
Marc Kresin
Designing your digital future, Erreiche Business Agilität im digitalen Wettbewerb mit Cloud, Künstlicher Intelligenz, Digitalisierung, E-Commerce, Lean- und Agile Methoden