Current strategies in the retail industry for best-agers

Abstract

In view of the current demographic transformation, the retail trade faces a clear challenge to reconsider its existing concepts, and to include older target groups in its marketing planning to an increased degree. In the present paper, we will look first at the factor of location, one of the central success factors in the retail trade. Next, we will examine the preferences of German best-agers for certain types of businesses, such as shops close to home rather than out-of-town malls. We then proceed to discuss the effects of changed customer needs on the design of the assortments and of packaging because of the customer's decreasing physical capabilities. We will present examples from the daily practice of the trade. In conclusion, we will provide a brief overview of foreseeable trends in the retail trade. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.