Change NRW: City cities are fighting online trading and vacancies!

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Change North Rhine-Westphalia: Study on shopping behavior shows challenges for inpatient trade and the future of inner cities.
Change North Rhine-Westphalia: Study on shopping behavior shows challenges for inpatient trade and the future of inner cities. (Symbolbild/ANAG)

in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) noticeable changes in retail. Empty shops and a migrating business world are indications of the growing influence of online trading, while inpatient sales are increasingly under pressure. A study by the NRW Ministry of Economic Affairs, which interviewed over 500 dealers, 13,000 customers and representatives of 28 city administrations, highlights the current shopping behavior and the challenges with which dealers are confronted. Ruhr24 reported that over 85% of the surveyed food and everyday products in their city Non-food articles are increasingly purchased online.

A clear example of this development is the bookseller "Weltbild", which in 2024 registered bankruptcy and closed branches to focus more on online sales. Despite these transformation processes, the inner cities remain highly valued as important social meeting points in society. The Sunday, which is open to sales, is still very popular. The picture is particularly dreary in small cities: here, retailers are increasingly closing, which means that the residents switch to larger cities or the Internet. There is further focus on the efforts of many cities in North Rhine -Westphalia to develop a car -free city center, but this makes it difficult to find the parking space. In order to meet the challenges of change, digital solutions such as Click & Collect and local shopping apps are of great importance. Interestingly, only a third of the retailers surveyed have their own online shop, which indicates a significant catch-up requirement in digitization.

Future of trade and consumer surveys

Wirtschaft NRW , the survey is aimed at both consumers and retailers in order to gain valuable findings on shopping habits and alternative offers in the region.

Minister of Economic Affairs Mona Neubaur emphasizes the great importance of flourishing inner cities for quality of life and tourism. In North Rhine -Westphalia, over 100,000 shops with more than 750,000 employees are active, which illustrates the importance of a stable retail. The study, which is expected to run by the end of September 2024, not only deals with the challenges of online trading, but also illuminates differences between rural and urban regions and the value of regional products. Filling out the questionnaire takes about 15 minutes and is anonymous to ensure honest insights.

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