Media Markt wants to expand subscriptions and hints at provider plans
In the future, Media Markt wants to develop a subscription model that enters into a ‘monthly payment relationship’ with the customer. Such a subscription should entitle you to support different, interconnected electronic products.
In addition to supporting ‘internet-of-things’-like devices and items, the ‘Always On service’ can also be linked with other services, such as healthcare services and, for example, a ‘permanent line with the supermarket’, which automatically replenishes the refrigerator. is becoming, says coo Dennis Hooijmans in an interview with Marketing Online.
In the conversation, he also hints at other markets. “We look at telephony with a slanted eye. Maybe we will become a provider.” According to Hooijmans, the reason for looking for new ways to enter into a customer relationship stems from the ‘new, complex reality’ in which customers find themselves. According to him, everything is rapidly becoming more complicated, because more and more things are connected with each other. He mentions health care, energy, education and emergency services as examples, which are connected by permanent data connections. He sees a role for the retail chain in this.
The chain recently started a loyalty program in the form of the Media Markt Club. The club goes a lot further than the monthly newsletter, where there are no profiles behind the addresses. With the Media Markt Club, Media Markt is taking the first, small step in the direction of service provision, in addition to retail. The data collected by the program is analyzed in collaboration with the central Media-Saturn organization in Germany. Media-Saturn is also setting up a data center there. It is not clear from the interview what exactly that data center will provide.
Marketing Online wonders why consumers would entrust their entire digital possessions to Media Markt. Hooijmans sees this as a ‘great challenge’. “For example, we give energy advice, then we indicate that you can save money by replacing the existing refrigerator. You then find out what people have at home.”