• Home Page
• Journal
  • Journal
  • Distribution
  • Editorial Board
  • Editorial Staff
  • Sections
  • List of reviewers
  • Requirements for Articles
  • Russian Logistics Journal
• News
  • Events list
  • Rules for press releases
  • News of Logistics
• Subscription
  • Subscription via Agencies
  • E-mailing
• Advertising
  • Advertising in Journal
  • Website Advertising
• Archive
• Contacts

The professional platform for optimized ecommerce processes

TradeWorld at LogiMAT 2017 in Stuttgart

The online segment is continually professionalizing, and omnichannel is the new trade standard. That means process optimization is the number-one priority for everyone who aspires to be a serious e-commerce market player. TradeWorld 2017, with a host of major exhibitors and practical forums, offers essential guidance here. 

Amid a panorama of stagnating retail sales, the online sector remains dynamic. The German E-Commerce and Distance Selling Trade Association bevh, at its annual press conference for 2016, reported renewed revenue growth of some 12 percent in German online sales. As the annual study from EHI and Statista shows, nearly half of the revenue volume of 46.9 billion euros can be traced to the elite group of the 100 largest online merchants, whose dynamic growth is several points above the industry average. “That means that e-commerce in Germany is continually professionalizing, and this needs to be addressed,” explains Dr. Petra Seebauer, Managing Director of EUROEXPO Messe- und Kongress-GmbH in charge of TradeWorld. 

At the same time, omnichannel – the integrated approach to customers across all sales and communication channels – has evolved into the new trade standard. At the forefront here are services such as click & collect and the in-store return of online orders. But customers, who increasingly interact across multiple channels, are also demanding more and more omnichannel features. This includes online availability checks and in-store ordering options, which have now joined the standard repertoire of most major retailers. In this environment, process optimization is playing an increasingly important role – for the e-commerce sector, but also for brick-and-mortar retailers dealing with digitization and for any manufacturer that wants to be involved in e-commerce. 

“Lightning-fast and highly dynamic: That’s how most people would describe the current developments in the digitization of production and trade processes. Anyone hoping to thrive in e-commerce, especially in B2B sales, depends now more than ever on first-rate solutions for supply chain management, warehouse management systems, materials management, and intralogistics,” says TradeWorld director Petra Seebauer. 

Top players under one roof 

An essential source of guidance here can be found at TradeWorld, taking place March 14 to 16, 2017. For the fourth time, TradeWorld is integrated as a strategic ecommerce and omnichannel component of LogiMAT, the 15th “International Trade Show for Distribution, Materials Handling, and Information Flow.” TradeWorld – especially the exhibition areas surrounding the TradeWorld expert forum with its central location in Hall 6 – features innovative concepts for designing, managing, and integrating digitization in the areas of procurement, online shops and marketing, payment, software, intralogistics, shipping, fulfillment, returns, and after-sales. More and more LogiMAT exhibitors, alongside the traditional focus on intralogistical products and systems, are also presenting services and solutions for smooth digitized trade processes. 

The Berlin-based software company e-vendo (Hall 6, Booth 6D44) is one of the exhibitors you’ll find at the TradeWorld expert forum in Hall 6. The company is presenting an end-to-end solution comprising a comprehensive materials management system with an online shop for desktop and mobile devices, including a link to all key marketplaces and a mobile interactive checkout tool for the POS. The company shipcloud picks it up from here, offering digital retailers a cloud-based shipping solution that includes all key providers. The newcomer, honored as a “Rising Star 2015” by bevh, is participating in the shared booth for start-ups (Hall 6, Booth 6C61m). The Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy (BMWi) is sponsoring the participation of young, innovative companies at LogiMAT, the leading international trade show. Ten start-ups will showcase their offerings at the shared booth at LogiMAT 2017. 

Once the goods have reached the customer, the aim is to maximize customer satisfaction with first-rate customer service. For this, industry professionals can benefit from a visit to the booth of WNM (Hall 6, Booth 6F46), which will debut the latest version of its customer relationship management software easyRMA at TradeWorld 2017. Managing returns and complaints, streamlining repair requests, organizing customer projects: easyRMA lets you manage all service-related matters in one place. XPROMA, an international partner active in all areas of the automated distribution of goods and information (Hall 6, Booth 6C41), presents CMC Cartonwrap, a fully automated packing and shipping system with a dynamic cartonboard feed for single- or multiple-item packaging. The system was developed especially for the needs of e-commerce shippers and fulfillment service providers, who previously relied on time-consuming, costly processes for procuring various standardized box sizes to meet their diverse shipping needs. 

pakadoo, a corporate start-up from logistics giant LGI, presents its “work-life logistics” at TradeWorld (Hall 6, Booth 6C49), a service that lets people consolidate their private parcels for delivery to their workplace independently of any one parcel service. This logistics solution represents a new approach to the problem of the “last mile” that is easier for parcel services, reduces traffic, and helps the environment. Other TradeWorld exhibitors include Vallée and Partners consultants, who specialize in logistics and ERP (Hall 6, Booth 6D54); ibi research, known for its e-commerce guide (Hall 6, Booth 6D47); shop system providers such as IntelliShop (Hall 6, Booth 6C43) and Intershop (Hall 6, Booth 6F44); fulfillment service providers Adfull (Hall 6, Booth 6C45) and KS Europe (Hall 6, Booth 6D40); warehouse solutions providers such as Relex Solutions (Hall 6, Booth 6F40) and FIS (Hall 6, Booth 6D43); and omnichannel specialist gaxsys (Hall 6, Booth 6D48). 

TradeWorld’s e-commerce themes can also be found across the spectrum of exhibitors at LogiMAT 2017. This includes the Sievers Group (Hall 7, Booth 7B64), presenting a new version of its SNC/Logistics warehouse management system, which helps retailers keep an eye on key performance indicators such as return and error rates. Robotics startup Magazino (Hall 5, Booth 5D27) presents a new gripper for its TORU Cube mobile picking system – a perfect solution for chaotic warehouse layouts like an online shoe retailer, for example. And Dataphone AG (Hall 7, Booth 7B11) presents an app-based, intuitive ordering solution that supports branch offices. Also on display are intralogistics specialists for e-commerce such as SSI Schäfer (Hall 1, Booth 1D21), Swisslog (Hall 1, Booth 1B51), Vanderlande (Hall 1, Booth 1J21), TGW Logistics (Hall 5, Booth 5D55), Fives (Halle 5, Booth 5D68), and S&P Computersysteme (Hall 7, Booth 7C41); supply chain solutions providers ICS Group (Hall 7, Booth 7B20), inconso (Hall 7, Booth 7D55), and Unitechnik (Hall 1, Booth 1G21); and warehouse management companies such as texdata (Hall 5, Booth 5F70) and LogControl (Hall 7, Booth 7D08). 

Best practices help businesses thrive 

The best way for industry professionals to find out how to best optimize their own processes and which solutions work best in the real world is to listen to the insights of the big industry players and experienced e-commerce experts. The presentations at TradeWorld 2017 are dedicated to meeting this need. One focus is on the links between B2C and B2B commerce. Dr. Georg Wittmann from ibi research has assembled a group of experienced practitioners for his expert forum “B2B in the digital age” to talk about implementing best-practice digital solutions in the B2B environment. Trade expert Stephan Meixner offers tips on applying B2C best practices to the B2B sector in his expert forum “E-commerce in B2B & B2C.” Dr. Franz Vallée from the prestigious Vallée and Partners consulting firm shares his insights on “Cross-channel and other trends in fashion logistics” in his expert forum. Nowhere are omnichannel features so prominent as in the fashion industry. At the same time, this segment is more exposed than most to challenges like cross-channel pickup, payment, and returns processes – so other segments are sure to learn valuable lessons here. In other forums, experts share the secrets of their success with smart retail logistics, real-world solutions for returns logistics, and innovative last-mile solutions. 

“We want TradeWorld 2017 to provide essential guidance to everyone who seeks to succeed in digital trade – for e-commerce operators, omnichannel providers, B2C merchants, and B2B specialists alike,” says TradeWorld director Dr. Petra Seebauer. The close ties between trade and logistics processes is also made abundantly clear in the LogiMAT and TradeWorld forums happening outside of Hall 6, where the agenda is shaped by insights into the future of e-commerce and omnichannel. A sampling of some of the discussions: “Packaging 4.0 – The future of packaging” and “Auto-ID as an Industry 4.0 enabler.” “E-commerce is also driving growth in intralogistics, and we acknowledge this in our agenda. This overall package offers attendees an added value that they won’t find in this combination anywhere else,” concludes Peter Kazander, Managing Director of EUROEXPO Messe- und Kongress-GmbH and director of LogiMAT. 

About TradeWorld 

TradeWorld 2017 – a special strategic component with its own program of expert forums – features exhibitors showcasing e-commerce and omnichannel solutions for businesses in the manufacturing, commercial, and service sectors as part of LogiMAT, the 15th International Trade Show for Distribution, Materials Handling, and Information Flow. LogiMAT welcomes more than 1,300 international exhibitors to the Messe Stuttgart convention center from March 14 to 16, 2017. 

The event offers innovative e-commerce concepts for designing, managing, and integrating digitization in the areas of procurement, online shops and marketing, payment, software, intralogistics, shipping, fulfillment, returns, and after-sales. Rounding off the program is the TradeWorld expert forum in Hall 6, with a different program of presentations each day exploring such issues as B2B in the digital age, e-commerce in B2B & B2C, success stories in smart retail logistics, cross-channel and other trends in fashion logistics, practical solutions in returns logistics, and innovative last-mile solutions.