Opportunities for small organic shops despite the rise of organic supermarkets

Summary in the original language of the document

Similar to the trend in the German organic food industry as a whole, development on the Berlin organic market is currently very dynamic. As a result, many organic supermarkets and chains are moving to Berlin, creating a major challenge for small Berlin organic shops in particular. We examined the current competitive situation on the natural foods retail market on the basis of a market analysis and interviews with experts. Potential measures for improving the competitive positioning of smaller organic shops were identified. Although to date not many smaller organic shops have been driven from the market, experts and market players expect the structure of the market to change to the detriment of organic shops because organic supermarkets have better competitive advantages in many areas including communication policy, pricing policy, sales floor layout, etc.. However, small organic shops have still not yet totally exploited their full marketing potential, particularly with respect to the sales mix policy and communication policy. For small shops to compete on the market, they need to have a distinct profile, strengthen their function as a local supplier and systematically increase the already high level of customer satisfaction.