Vlerick Expertise in Retail & Consumer Goods

The creation of a single market for retail in the Benelux countries offers more than just significant benefits to both consumers and businesses. By 2025, a unified retail market could create 95,000 new jobs and 36,000 new companies in the sector. That has been shown by a study conducted by Vlerick Business School, commissioned by the Benelux Secretariat General. The study also contains five policy recommendations to strengthen cross-border retail trade by eliminating existing obstacles for entrepreneurs.

The range of products on display in supermarkets and local shops is split up into various different aisles according to product type: vegetables and fruit, dry goods, drinks, etc. On the shelves of each of these aisles, products are grouped by category: soft drinks, water, wine, and so on, and within each category, are mostly displayed by brand. As consumers, we are familiar with this traditional layout. But what happens when you group products differently?

Does the rapid growth of e-commerce herald the end of the physical shop? Professor Gino Van Ossel offers a solution in his new book ‘Omnichannel in retail: the answer to e-commerce’. He argues in favour of omnichannel retail, where the customer is put first, not the shop.

Online retail continues to gain market share by growing faster than store-based retail. And as e-commerce continues to grow, many store-based retailers have entered the online arena. But this presents a paradox: by launching a webshop to cater to the growing segment of online shoppers, the retailers are actually fuelling the further growth of e-commerce. The result: floor productivity in physical stores is under increasing pressure, with a potentially negative impact on rental income for the owner of retail real estate.

This case describes the entrepreneurial process, as it happened for a manufacturer of Printed Circuit Boards. It exemplifies the interplay between lucrative opportunities, entrepreneurial team and resources; addresses the role of the global marketplace for entrepreneurs; highlights the successful shift by the manufacturer to electronic business to break the product commodity cycle, and puts forward franchising as a potential growth strategy.

What impact is the economic crisis having on the Belgian consumer’s buying behaviour? To discover the answer, the Vlerick Brand Management Centre conducted a quantitative study of the Belgian consumer in times of crisis. Here are the results of this unique consumer research initiative.