Top Story Archive

As Europe's leading consumer electronics retailer, MediaMarktSaturn and CECONOMY AG also want to be a role model in the industry when it comes to sustainability - CEO Dr. Karsten Wildberger: "It is our responsibility as a company to make a relevant social contribution to sustainability."

Following the "Tech Village Milan", MediaMarktSaturn has opened its second Lighthouse store in Europe in Rotterdam in the Netherlands.  On around 5,000 square meters on two floors, MediaMarkt presents the best and most popular consumer electronics highlights in its completely redesigned “Tech Village Rotterdam”.

It was November 1979 when the very first MediaMarkt store opened at Euro-Industriepark in the leafy Munich district of Schwabing-Freimann. Now, almost exactly 42 years later, the world’s first MediaMarkt is moving into its new home.

If you want to buy a refrigerator or a washing machine, you are often spoilt for choice: there are different functions, sizes, designs and prices. Another distinguishing criterion is the energy label that sticks on the products. It shows a traffic light scale from red to green and provides information about the energy efficiency of the respective product. A new energy label is now mandatory as of November 1.

70 participants, 329 votes from the audience and 10 innovative start-ups fighting for a place for their product in the online stores of MediaMarkt and Saturn - this was the first Virtual Product Pitch Fight hosted by MediaMarktSaturn on October 6. At the online event, startups from all over the world were able to present their product and compete for the audience's favor in a direct word duel with another product startup. In the end, a winner was determined.

The MediaMarktSaturn Retail Group stands for innovation in all areas: In its products and services, the equipment of its stores and its business models. In its search for new ideas, the company also cooperates with start-up companies. Two competitions are currently being held to find new partners for the joint implementation of pilot projects for the retail of the future.  

Solar energy is the trend. Photovoltaics is in great demand, especially in countries with a lot of sunshine, such as Spain or Portual. MediaMarkt Iberia therefore offers its customers advice and the sale of photovoltaic systems. In doing so, the Iberian national company is continuing to implement its corporate strategy in the service sector.

Especially in these days they are an indispensable product for the home office - the ink cartridges. But they usually cause a lot of waste, because once they are empty, they usually end up in the bin. MediaMarktSaturn offers a sustainable solution: the remanufactured ink cartridges from ISY. Sustainability is the top priority for the own brands.

What successes does MediaMarktSaturn have in terms of climate-damaging emissions? What is the company doing to enable customers to shop in an environmentally friendly way and what initiatives are there in our countries on the subject of sustainability? All of this is contained in the communication on progress, which annually highlights further developments and successes, and reports on challenges and solutions for the future.

For the first time, MediaMarktSaturn successfully used artificial intelligence in a pilot project to optimize the category management of its stores. The joint project with the AI start-up CB4 was a complete success and also convinced the jury of the Retail Technology Award (reta) of the EHI Retail Institute. For the successful test, which was conducted at 67 Spanish Media Markt stores between April and September 2019, MediaMarktSaturn received its fourth reta Award in the category Best Enterprise Solution in Düsseldorf. 

At the Retailtech Hub, eleven startups from the now sixth batch have started the Focus Week. This means it’s time for the participants to get down to work at a series of workshops, meetings and networking events. Let’s find out more about them.

Packaging waste is also generated during the manufacture of private label products. Reducing these quantities and making the packaging itself more sustainable is the aim of IMTRON's packaging strategy. What exactly is behind this strategy? How sustainable is IMTRON's packaging management? Sustainability News spoke to Kamilla Schafmayer, an expert for sustainability, compliance and contract management at IMTRON.

This was a great honour for MediaMarkt! The well-known brand was declared Brand of the Year at the World Branding Awards in London, the ultimate awards ceremony in the realm of global brands.

For many people, starting the day without a cup of coffee is inconceivable – and this explains the popularity of fully automatic coffee machines. Customers can quickly find what they’re looking for in MediaMarkt’s and Saturn’s online shops, where over 350,000 articles are permanently available – including, of course, plenty of fully automatic coffee machines. This huge choice for customers means a huge amount of writing for MediaMarktSaturn’s online team. After all, each product needs a comprehensive blurb to help customers make the right decision. And this job is now done completely automatically using a text robot.

Whether it's finding products on the market faster, offering customers personalized offers or optimizing logistics - the use of artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly relevant for the future of retail. This was the focus of the Digital Day organized by HDE in cooperation with MediaMarktSaturn. In the start-up accelerator Retailtech Hub, start-ups presented their ideas that will determine the trade of the future.

Where to put the old cell phone? The answer to this question is now ecoATM! The new dispenser at MediaMarkt replaces old mobile phones with a MediaMarkt gift card.

The new logistics centre in Greven is a gigantic 90,000 square metres - equivalent to an area of over 12 football pitches. On 30 August, operator Fiege reopened the MegaCenter. MediaMarktSaturn is the largest customer. 

MediaWorld Como was the Group's first store to be awarded the LEED® certificate for sustainable building in gold. Read the complete interview with Roberto Migliorini Mulazzani, store and system planner at MediaMarktSaturn in Como, Italy.

More centrality is one of the key objectives of the Tech Transformation at MediaMarktSaturn. One of the projects being carried out is the creation of a common IT infrastructure for all our country organizations. We spoke to Johannes Wechsler, the MD of MediaMarktSaturn Technology, about how the Global Infrastructure concept benefits customers – and why size matters.

A full piggy bank or preserving jar simply makes you happy - until the moment when you want to exchange your savings. Because fees are often due for this. A worthwhile alternative is provided by the new "Münzlos-Glücklich" vending machine, which was installed in three MediaMarkt stores and one Saturn store and will be tested in a pilot in the coming months.

Leaving the house without coffee in the morning? For coffee lovers a thing of impossibility. All the more annoying when the beloved fully automatic machine goes on strike. But there is help: MediaMarkt and Saturn repair fully automatic coffee machines qualitatively, quickly and at a fixed price. In their own competence center in Heilbronn, with trained specialists. We have taken a look behind the scenes. 

MediaMarkt is testing applications in instore-navigation and location-based services for the first time in Germany: In Gründau-Lieblos customers can use their smartphone to be guided precisely to the desired product on the store via app and thus benefit from a faster and easier product search.  

Who doesn't know that: You call a call center and hang up in the queue. Thanks to intelligent waiting and callback management, this should now be a thing of the past. MediaMarktSaturn has launched a pilot project - with success.

Today, technology is taken for granted. It offers simple solutions, meaningful supplements or helpful support in countless areas of daily life. But can it be that new technology is rather frustrating for many people and causes new problems? Because how much time do we waste watching the laptop update, setting up the new smartphone or watching the station scan on TV? High tech - more curse than blessing?

Product labels that are cheap and are only on the shelves of your own retailer are becoming more and more popular. But what makes them so attractive for retailers? Karsten Sommer and Claus Liedy, Managing Directors of IMTRON, the direct subsidiary of the MediaMarktSaturn Retail Group, provide answers in a video interview.

3D printers offer huge opportunities for sustainability in areas ranging from biotech and humanitarian aid to bespoke manufacturing and plastic waste upcycling. On the other hand, they may also lead to more consumption and even environmental destruction. Below, Sustainability News weighs up the pros and cons of 3D printing.

Anyone who places an order in the MediaMarkt and Saturn online shop is not left alone after clicking the Buy button. From now on, customers will be closely informed by e-mail about the status of their order. This not only reduces the call center's workload, but also significantly increases sales.

With just one click, the television is ordered in Saturn's online shop, and shortly afterwards it is freshly packed and waiting to be picked up at the store or brought to the customer's front door. The customer doesn't notice what happens in between. For this reason, we accompanied a parcel on its way - and drove to our logistics center in Erfurt.

At the 2019 Capital Digital Lab Summit, our innovation unit N3XT was declared the best retailer. The quality of the ideas of its pilot projects and their advanced stage of development were singled out for special mention. The award was presented on Tuesday evening in Berlin. 

Hundreds of startups fight for entry into the Retailtech Hub in every new round. The fifth batch starts on 25 June - 12 applicants have met the strict selection criteria and are working together with partners such as MediaMarktSaturn on exciting innovations for the retail sector. The criteria are, for example, the expertise of the start-ups, the cooperation within the team and the probability for the retail partners to tackle a pilot project with the start-ups.

Crazy things happen in Italy. Instead of a laptop the colleague in the office suddenly unfolds a red M, at the subway station people wear headphones with a red M and instead of a camera - one already suspects it - a red M is pulled out. There's no question about it: the red M, or inverted W, which stands for MediaWorld - as MediaMarkt is called in Italy - is omnipresent.

The World Environment Day on 5 June is accompanied annually by 150 states with numerous actions on the subject of environmental protection and nature conservation. MediaMarktSaturn dedicates a whole week to this day and offers its employees on campus numerous activities and lectures on the topic of sustainability in the first week of June.

Whenever the coffeemaker packs up, it’s a terrible start to the day. But even the best machines sometimes stop working for no apparent reason. Coffee and espresso machines have to withstand all sorts of stress: a pressure of 15 bars, continuous use at maximum temperatures, and a grinder that places enormous strain on the motor every single day. But if your coffee machine breaks down, do you always have to throw it away and buy a new one? Thankfully, no, because repairs are now all part of the service at MediaMarkt and Saturn.

Exciting stories about exciting technology: Saturn's "Turn On" magazine won gold in the "Content Strategy" category at the "Best of Content Marketing Award" in early May. What makes the success story so special? We take a look behind the scenes. 

Those who vote strengthen the EU for the future. For this reason, MediaMarktSaturn together with the German Retail Association (HDE) is calling on its employees and customers to take part in the European elections on 26 May.

Digital growth is one of MediaMarktSaturn's strategic focal points. Innovations therefore play a major role. Which innovation projects exist in the company and how has innovation changed over the years?  The accelerator "Startupbootcamp" has asked Martin Wild, Chief Innovation Officer (CINO), these questions in an interview.

Start-ups? These are young companies with idealistic concepts. In the beginning, the German start-up scene was smiled at by many. But since its hesitant beginnings, the German start-up scene has developed into an international model of success. In the third part of our series, we provide a historical overview.  

There is a technology trend that no retailer can avoid: Big Data. Data analysis can help companies create better offerings for customers and increase sales.  In the second part of our series "Looking outside the box", we focus on what Big Data is all about and what its potential is.

What do the Kelly Family, a Buran space shuttle and MediaMarkt all have in common? That’s right: Speyer Museum of Technology! Apart from exhibits from Russian space exploration, a Boeing 747, and the houseboat once inhabited by the Kelly Family, the legendary MediaMarkt truck has now also gone into retirement there. This ultimate tech truck, which was last seen out on tour as a mobile virtual reality world, is now another must-see in this prominent museum of technology.

One year ago there was a special event at MediaMarktSaturn Technology. The first sprint was launched in mid-April, marking the beginning of the organization's agile transformation. 

The online platform Location Insider has published a Shoptech guide. In it, technology decision-makers from successful retailers were asked about the most important trends in e-commerce. Also present: CTO Atul Bhardwaj.

The Retailtech Hub has a new partner. The digital innovation platform, which was initiated by MediaMarktSaturn and Plug and Play, is now working with Wirecard alongside well-known market leaders such as Lidl and s.Oliver. Wirecard is a leading global innovation driver for digital financial technology. We talked about the new partnership with Thorsten Marquardt, Managing Director of the Retailtech Hub, and Jörn Leogrande, EVP Wirecard Labs.

They're on the smartphone, in cars and in the house. They listen to names like Siri, Alexa or Cortana and are becoming increasingly popular in Germany: intelligent language assistants. In our series "Blick über dem Tellerrand" we write at irregular intervals about topics that concern us. This time it's about language assistants. With language assistants everything - as the name already betrays - revolves around speaking. But what exactly is an intelligent language assistant and what can it do?

Roboter als Kundenbegleiter, Chatbots und automatisierte Autos: Lösungen rund um die künstliche Intelligenz (KI) sind auf dem Vormarsch. Und dieser Trend wird sich laut einer PwC-Studie weiter beschleunigen: Bis zum Jahr 2030 dürfte das deutsche Bruttoinlandsprodukt (BIP) allein aufgrund KI-basierter Innovationen um 11,3 Prozent steigen. Das entspricht einer Summe von rund 430 Milliarden Euro.

MediaMarktSaturn is testing various technical solutions under the umbrella of the Retailtech Hub, one of which won the Audience Choice Award at the Shoptalk, the "Rising Star" trade conference in Las Vegas. This solution, invented by Startup rapitag, uses the anti-theft device to enable cashless payment. We congratulated Co-Founder Alex on the award and asked some questions.

On 11 February, the MediaMarkt Cooking Show celebrated a very special occasion when its 100th edition was streamed on mediamarkt.de and koch-mit.de.

Fabian Seitz has been with MediaMarktSaturn for eight and a half years. The 24-year-old started his career as an apprentice, then as a permanent employee. At the same time, he completed his A-levels and studied part-time. Today he is Cloud Product Owner. We asked him what was behind it.

Robots, VR glasses and chatbots - many technology trends are used in retail. We took a closer look at these trends and asked ourselves: what do other companies actually do?

Everyone is talking about data. They also play an important role for MediaMarktSaturn. Johannes Wechsler, Managing Director at MediaMarktSaturn Technology, explains in an interview how our customers benefit from the data analysis and what challenges lie ahead. Digital Welt Magazin asked him about data analysis, startups and DigiCon.

There’s no doubt that bricks-and-mortar retail has been drastically changed by digitalization. But how far will the digital transition go, where will it stop, and above all – what’s next? Let’s take a look at the challenges and trends facing the retail industry.

Great – you finally received that long-awaited new smartphone for Christmas! But what are you going to do with your old mobile phone? People tend to chuck them into that special drawer reserved for tech we no longer need. But with spring cleaning on the agenda, it’s high time to get rid of them! And now, at the three Saturn stores in Berlin – Alexanderplatz, Europa-Center and Schlossstrasse – old cell phones can be easily exchanged for Saturn gift cards using reverse vending machines.

Agile working is said to be flexible, fast and dynamic. But what does this mean exactly – and how does a company stand to benefit? “In times of turbulence the biggest danger is to act with yesterday’s logic.” This quotation from Peter Drucker, the founder of modern management theory, summarizes the challenges facing businesses today. Digitalization is changing methods, work processes, products and customer requirements – and at tremendous speed. What was gospel yesterday is outdated today.

With more than 500 employees, Redblue Marketing GmbH exclusively develops our marketing concepts and strategies for MediaMarkt and Saturn. And it regards corporate volunteering – be it giving blood, holding raffles, or even becoming directly involved – as its social responsibility. At the Munich Campus, Redblue supports social and environmental projects and also animal welfare. In July 2018, it introduced a scheme known as Social Day, in which members of staff can use their skills to support a social project close to their heart.

CES 2019 is the trade show leaving nothing to be desired! Around 4,500 exhibitors are currently showcasing their very latest products in Las Vegas. The Consumer Electronics Show, which will remain open until 11 January, is a high-tech show of superlatives. The organizers are expecting about 180,000 trade visitors from 155 countries and there’s a substantial range of brand-new products on display, such as foldable smartphones, digital health gadgets, smart kitchen appliances and 8K televisions. In addition, the first 5G devices supporting the new, fast mobile communications standard are on display. Martin Wild, Chief Innovation Officer at MediaMarktSaturn, is at CES 2019 and told us about the latest trends.

Better product recommendations, faster delivery, and more tailor-made availability - Technology is becoming the main distinguishing feature between different retailers in the digital commerce world. As a result, MediaMarktSaturn is increasingly developing into a technology-driven company. 

Shopping online has been growing rapidly for years. At MediaMarkt and Saturn, too, the webshops have an important role to play within their multichannel strategy. But e-commerce has also been accused of being particularly harmful to the climate because of the high level of harmful emissions from transport. Should we give up online shopping to protect the environment? Well, the issue’s not as simple as that, so let’s take a closer look.

Christmas elves and christmas bunny - our colleagues in Spain, Greece, Austria and the Netherlands have come up with creative spots to match the (pre) Christmas season. We have collected a few.

Wir meinen es ernst mit der Nachhaltigkeit. Daher hat sich unser Unternehmen dem Global Compact angeschlossen und den nachhaltigen Entwicklungsziele (SDGs) der Vereinten Nationen verpflichtet. Um zu zeigen, wie das genau aussieht und unser Commitment zu den Vereinten Nationen zu untermauern, uns an einer Filmserie beteiligt.

Gerade in der Vorweihnachtszeit bilden sich an den Kassen oft lange Schlangen. Das kostet den Kunden Zeit und den Handel bares Geld, denn viele Kunden entschließen sich aufgrund der langen Wartezeit gegen den Kauf. Saturn schafft Abhilfe: Seit Anfang des Jahres werden Angebote zum Mobile Self-Checkout getestet. Mit „SATURN Smartpay“ wird im Saturn Hamburg Altstadt das Bezahlen per Smartphone erstmals flächendeckend in einem deutschen Markt eingeführt. Ab sofort können Saturn-Kunden im größten Elektronikmarkt der Welt nahezu alle Produkte direkt am Regal bezahlen.

The light bulb is dead. The energy-saving bulb is on the way out. The future belongs to the LED! And for good reason, for LED lights are energy-efficient and eco-friendly. What’s more, LEDS from our own brand ISY are produced under fair working conditions, making them triply sustainable!

High above the rooftops of Munich with a view of the Cathedral of Our Dear Lady, the third batch of the Retailtech Hub concluded on 20 November with Expo Day. A total of nine startups showcased their ideas and solutions for digital retail in the stylish new district of Werksviertel and presented their joint pilot projects with the Retailtech Hub’s partners.

When experts discuss the future of retail, there’s a sharp clash of opinions. Some claim that in future, people will only shop online, while others still think the internet is totally overrated. In a survey conducted together with Google researchers of the market research institute GfK have now explored how customers themselves use both channels before making a purchase, i.e. when deciding what to buy.

Fill your fridge correctly – and you’ll ensure that your groceries last as long as possible and preserve their flavour. As each type of food requires specific storage conditions, each part of the refrigerator isn’t equally suitable for all types of food. In addition, a well-sorted fridge consumes less electricity, protecting the environment and saving money into the bargain.

MediaMarktSaturn’s Data Protection Team recently won the coveted JUVE Award in the category ‘In-House Team of the Year’. According to the jury: “Their far-sighted planning and implementation didn’t go unnoticed by their competitors, either. And given the recent restructuring of the Legal Department, the issue of data protection has become even more important.” The JUVE Award is presented annually by JUVE, a publisher specializing in legal affairs.

They sit together and work together and everyone has a very specific role - for the employees at MediaMarktSaturn Technology, working in so-called Product Teams is nothing new. It’s the core element of the collaborative unit known as a ‘Scrum’, which is intended to create synergy and enable teams to develop solutions quickly and independently. 

“When’s my parcel finally going to arrive?” This is the main question people ask after ordering something online. To make sure customers always know exactly where their parcel is, the online shops of MediaMarkt and Saturn in Germany are now collaborating with the Munich startup parcelLab. 

Queuing up at the checkout is now a thing of the past! Following the huge success of Saturn’s pilot project with Europe’s first self-checkout consumer electronics store in Austria, the company is now also testing mobile payments in Germany. Customers can now pay for selected products from the headphone department at Saturn’s store in Munich’s biggest shopping centre PEP using the app SATURN Smartpay.

MediaMarktSaturn has become the first European consumer electronics retailer to join the United Nations Global Compact. The UNGC is the world’s biggest initiative for sustainable, responsible corporate governance.

On 21 June, 32 start-ups from around the world presented their ideas on Selection Day at the Retailtech Hub. Eleven of them particularly impressed the jury and are now entering the third round of the innovation platform, implemented in tandem with the Plug and Play Tech Center.

That's how the ERC plays in the coming season: In the Westpark the ERC Ingolstadt presented its new jerseys. The home jersey is in a rich dark blue, the away jersey is classic white.