2023-10-11 17:39:41
Is Coop now also merging Fust and Nettoshop?
Coop relies on Interdiscount in online retail and is letting the Microspot brand die. The retailer is also taking a closer look at Fust and Nettoshop.
Logistics center of Interdiscount and Microspot in Jegenstorf.
Photo: Peter Schneider (Keystone)
The news comes unexpectedly: Coop is merging its two online shops Interdiscount and Microspot and letting the Microspot brand die. Not much will change for customers. Interdiscount assumes “all of Microspot.ch’s obligations, such as outstanding orders, warranty and repair services,” like Coop on Wednesday announced.
Industry experts such as David Morant from the consulting firm Carpathia see the merger as an indication of a necessary streamlining of home electronics formats at Coop. Interdiscount and Microspot pursued different pricing strategies and at the same time used the same logistics. That was a “strategic niggle,” writes Morant in a recent post on the company blog.
In addition, both online shops lost massive amounts of sales last year: Interdiscount 50 million francs and Microspot 9 million francs compared to 2021. According to Morant, it is therefore understandable that Coop sacrificed the weaker Microspot brand for the stronger Interdiscount brand.
However, with the merger, Coop also wants to make Interdiscount more powerful and cost-efficient: In the ranking of the competitors with the highest sales, the two Migros subsidiaries Digitec and Galaxus as well as Brack are well ahead of Microspot and Interdiscount.
The future of the home electronics industry lies in online business; billions in sales await. In 2022, the Swiss spent more money on electronics online than in traditional brick-and-mortar stores for the first time. Total sales in the home electronics trade in Switzerland recently reached 5.6 billion francs, as a survey by the market research institute GFK shows.
Price driver downwards disappears
From the consumer’s perspective, Coop’s decisions are likely to be less positive: “The price war in home electronics will ease slightly, as Microspot was known to drive prices downwards,” writes retail expert Morant. In other words: higher prices can be expected as the low-cost provider disappears.
Trading in home electronics doesn’t necessarily mean that business will do well on its own. Media Markt and Steg just found out regarding this. Media-Markt announced at the end of 2022 that it wanted to reduce the sales areas and product ranges of its traditional stores. The company had relied on brick-and-mortar retail for too long and had fallen behind in online sales.
At the beginning of September, Steg announced that it would close all seventeen branch locations, five sister online shops and the company headquarters in Schaffhausen. The reason is the financial situation: the operating companies are over-indebted and had to deposit their balance sheets.
“We constantly review our formats and orientations – this also applies to Fust and Nettoshop.”
It is therefore reasonable to assume that Coop might undergo further streamlining of its online shops. Because the starting position at Fust and Nettoshop is similar to that at Microspot and Interdiscount.
Both dealers operate in the same business, selling electrical household appliances. Both brands also lost sales last year.
Coop confirms that Fust and Nettoshop are not untouchable. “We constantly review our formats and orientations – this also applies to Fust and Nettoshop,” says a company spokeswoman. Any changes will be communicated publicly in due course.
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