Connected Commerce: OTTO & ECE enable delivery from the store.

With the new "Ship from Store" service, retailers sell their local assortments online and ship them directly from the store.

Online or offline commerce? For OTTO and ECE, these two worlds are not mutually exclusive. Under the name "Connected Commerce," both companies are driving forward the networking of the shopping worlds with their joint venture Stocksquare. The goal is to build a bridge for commerce. To this end, the marketplace connector Stocksquare connects stationary retailers with online marketplaces and makes local product ranges available online. This includes an availability display for stationary items as well as the option of online reservations.

Now comes the next stage in the expansion of bridge technology: with "Ship from Store," the first retailers are shipping their items directly from the stationary store. For retailers, this means not only greater visibility for their products, but also additional sales potential. End customers benefit from greater availability and product range diversity: "By working with Stocksquare, retailers can make their products accessible to millions of new customers in one fell swoop, thereby significantly increasing their sales potential. On otto.de alone, we have 11.5 million customers," explains Alexander Will, Head of Innovation Management at OTTO and Co-Managing Director at Stocksquare.

Connection to other marketplaces

However, it doesn't stop at a connection to OTTO. "We have decided to open up our technology to other marketplaces as well. For retailers, this means a huge new virtual sales landscape, and for OTTO it means a new business model," Will continues. In addition to otto.de, Stocksquare is therefore also linking its partners to AboutYou and Limango. The figures from the first participating retailers show: The concept is catching on. Stationary retailers, such as the premium fashion retailer EGOIST in Dresden, are in some cases achieving six-figure additional sales per week thanks to the marketplace connection with Stocksquare. The PTH Group, which operates a total of 119 stores of brands such as ESPRIT, Calvin Klein, Levi's and Tommy Hilfiger, has also been using the function since August. At the start, the group initially linked its ESPRIT stores to OTTO, with stores of other brands to follow.

How Ship from Store works

As an omnichannel connector, Stocksquare is the link between brick-and-mortar stores and online marketplaces. With a connection, retailers gain access to various platforms such as OTTO and ABOUT YOU. To ensure that this connection functions smoothly, Stocksquare offers services such as its own in-store tool for order processing from the stores, the provision of product data and interfaces to various merchandise management systems. After the connection, retailers enter the EANs, stocks and prices of their products and are thus immediately ready to sell. "The logic behind Stocksquare is called Plug & Play," says Sebastian Baumann, Head of Digital Business & Innovation at ECE and Co-Managing Director of Stocksquare. "We provide turnkey technology that connects retailers with millions of new customers* at the push of a button and enables easy order processing."