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before in the still young history of industrialization.
‘Industry 4.0’ is at present the buzzword dominating
the discussions here in Germany and this phenome is
not limited to industrial production-related topics at
all, but will have significant effects and consequences
for doing business in all areas. No economic sector
will be spared. The so-called ‘customer journey’, i.e. the
route a customer takes to be in touch with a brand
has significantly changed within the last few years as
evidenced by the many digital online platforms, which
have and are still spreading like wildfire globally. Platform
providers and online sellers such as Amazon, Google,
eBay, Airbnb, to quote only a few, rank among the most
valuable companies in the world and have (rightfully or
not…) surpassed in the few years of their existence long
established global giants such as Mercedes, Airbus or
General Electric in the assessment of their company value
by leading financial analysts.
More and more frequently, the customer journeys of
consumers start in the digital world, regardless whether
they ultimately buy a product in a traditional stationary
brick-and-mortar store or online.
In 2013 e.g. 77.2% of the German population of the age of
14 years+ was already online, which equals to 54.2 million
people and estimates are that in 2015 already more than
3 billion people will have online access on our globe.
The borderlines between off-line and online activities of
customers become very fluent and overlapping. They are
no more as clearly distinguished by the consumers as it
had been the case in the past. If someone for instance is
visiting a sports store and wants to find out how a certain
product is rated by social communities and is accessing
such information on his or her smart phone, is this an
offline or online activity?
In the light of the ever-growing increasing significance
of the Internet in general and online sales in particular,
the European Commission with its President Jean-Claude
Junckers has publicly announced on May 6, 2015 to
launch a new European Digital Single Market Initiative
(“DSMI”) with the aim to create one digital borderless
market for the approximately 500 million European
consumers in all 28 EU Member States.
2. What is this all about?
Let us assume a Danish female consumer, working in
Brussels and spending her summer holidays in Rome/
Italy spots a pair of trendy sports shoes in a fashionable
department store in Rome, which are offered for sale at a
highly favorable price.
After her return to Brussels she wants to purchase
another pair of the same brand from such department
store online, which she found advertised on its Italian
website. Yet when she provides her credit card data in the
course of the online payment procedure, she is redirected