from Jan Griesel
40 lectures, 60 exhibitors, a wealth of expertise and engaging discussions among the participants – those were just some of the highlights from our yearly congress, which took place on February 28th, 2015 at the Kongress Palais Kassel. Find out which topics caught the participants' attention and what the future holds for e-commerce.
The public took quite an interest in the 8th plentymarkets Online Sellers Congress: We counted a grand total of 1,600 participants - a record number of attendees! We were happy to welcome so many guests. It proved that our customers are also very concerned with the questions that took center stage at our congress: What will the future of e-commerce look like? What can I do to make my business model successful in years to come? Intriguing questions, which we discussed in great detail with both experts and participants.
The power of the niche
Online sellers will have to meet great challenges in the future. New online stores are still cropping up every day. However, only the top 10 stores are really growing. Most stores have stopped growing and and started stagnating.
As such, it's understandable that some participants listed to the predictions made by Dr. Jens Rothenstein from ECC Köln with an air of resignation. He is concerned that powerhouses like Amazon will force most small sellers out of business over the next years.
On the other hand, there is still a lot of room to grow in niches that large shops do not cover. The future looks bright for special interest shops, configurable and fairly produced items and other specialized market segments. Taking this into consideration one question that will surely continue to be on our minds is "How ready are online stores for the future and how can they be made ready?".
Flexible and secure – the plentymarkets cloud
We're trying to do our part to ensure the future of e-commerce by providing an improved cloud solution. Founder and CEO Jan Griesel presented a new hosting concept in his keynote speech:
The majority of plentymarkets systems are hosted in the plentymarkets server-cluster. In the future, we will have this data saved in several different locations throughout Europe. This means that our cloud architecture, which is based on public cloud providers such as IBM SoftLayer and Amazon Web Services, will be available internationally and will not be tied to a specific location. At the same time, we are also improving the cloud's performance and reliability. Valentin Merkel from tekit Consult Bonn GmbH, TÜV Saarland, awarded our work with a certificate for certified cloud security. Thank you for this award!
Lots of support for a social project
Thank you for the numerous donations to the family center that is currently being constructed in Kassel-Rothenditmold and that is affiliated with the German Child Protection Agency. The family center will cover 400 square meters and is expected to be completed this year. It will assist children, adolescents and their families. We will be able to donate 5,000 Euro to the Kassel branch of the German Child Protection Agency.
Grand finale with an award ceremony and party
www.yourdecoshop.com won the Design and Usability Award that was given at the end of the congress. A comprehensive report about the award ceremony is coming soon.
The party then got started with the band Fresh Music Live, the band from "The Voice of Germany". It was the perfect way to end a successful and memorable congress!
We will soon publish further blog entries about the 8th plentymarkets Online Sellers Congress. Stay tuned!
