Digitalization of Retail Shops. Innovation adoption by owner-managed retailers.

 

As a part of a project seminar in the economic geography/applied geography Master's program during WS 2016/17 we conducted research on the topic "Digitalization of retail shops - adoption of innovation in the owner-managed retail".

The digitalization of economy and society leads to huge restructurings in retail. Basis for this is IT-know-how, which is rarely available in retail companies so far.

On the one hand big retail companies can easily buy this IT-know-how, on the other hand there are some barriers for owner-managed retailers because of scarce ressources. Therefore it is very difficult for owner-managed retailers facing coming challenges in the age of digitalization. Furthermore in small companies is not anchored an innovation management.

This is where this study steps in. The aim of the study was, to acquire certain insights about the state of the art of digital innovations in the retail market and moreover generating approaches that are useful in a practical context.

Students conducted a survey about this topic in Aachen and in Baesweiler from 06.03.-10.03.2017.