Last updated : January 23, 2019 7:42 pm
The leading global trade fair in its 50th year saw approximately113,000 visitors and had 2,368 exhibitors. This year the major focus was on digitalisation, omnichannel and emotionalisation of the shopping experience
Held every three years, EuroShop 2017 kicked off with an optimised concept. Its refined profile with seven clearly defined dimensions (POP Marketing, Expo & Event Marketing, Retail Technology, Lighting, Visual Merchandising, Shop Fitting & Store Design and Food Tech & Energy Management) went down well with exhibitors and visitors alike.
Hans Werner Reinhard, Managing Director at Messe Düsseldorf, said, “EuroShop 2017 has again exceeded all the top scores achieved at EuroShop 2014. At its anniversary event it was able to once again show how young, creative and innovative the sector and its trade fair are.”
A total of 138 countries were represented on the visitor side. Commenting on this Reinhard said: “We could not be happier with the trade visitor breakdown. We are recording a constantly high level of demand from Germany and a significant rise in interest from abroad. Throughout the world it is known that EuroShop in Düsseldorf is the global No.1 trade show in the sector demonstrating what the future of retail looks like.”
The dominant themes at EuroShop 2017 were the continuing digitalisation in retail, tailor-made omnichannel solutions and emotionalisation of the shopping experience in the store.
Online retail is currently fuelling investment in physical stores in the sector. This is because competition from suppliers online means retailers have to make their stores ever more attractive. At the same time, the dovetailing of physical and online stores is generating new retail and interior design concepts. Modern information technology is becoming ever more important here.
“Customers expect both – on the one hand the shopping experience on site in the store and, on the other, delivery to their own front door. Conventional physical retailers are now increasingly developing their online stores and large online retailers are looking more and more to opening their own stores. EuroShop has managed to bring both worlds together,” explained Michael Gerling, Managing Director of the EHI Retail Institute, adding: “Physical stores and online retail are growing ever closer together, which is why at EuroShop the exhibition segments of shop fitting and technology are increasingly merging.”
Further EHI study report shows that retail is also investing heavily in LED technology and refrigeration technology. This was also visible in the halls of the exhibition centre. Here energy saving and sustainability are top priorities for retailers – which is why EuroShop Special Ecopark with its accompanying forum met with such a great response. Overall, the accompanying lecture forums on the different EuroShop dimensions were avidly attended and many EuroShop visitors took valuable ideas home with them from the international line-up of practice-focused lectures from the Architecture & Design Forum, the EuroCIS Forum, the Omnichannel Forum, the POPAI Forum or the Expo & Event Forum’ as informed by the trade fair organisers.
The next EuroShop will be held in Düsseldorf from 16 to 20 February 2020 and the next EuroCIS, as an annual event focusing on retail technology themes, will run from 27 February to 1 March 2018.