After a three month pilot phase, Nextrade, the first digital B2B marketplace for suppliers and retailers in the home and living sector, has now gone fully live, with over 60 suppliers and over 120,000 products, confirm Messe Frankfurt, organisers of Ambiente and Tendence.
The launch of the European rollout has been scheduled for Ambiente 2020, taking place from February 7-11 at Messe Frankfurt. Based on the feedback received from existing suppliers, further retailers andsuppliers will be added in selected countries from February 2020.
“Originally, we weren’t going to go live and open up the service for retailers until early 2020, with 2019 supposed to be the test phase,” explains Philip Ferger, Tendence and Nordstill Group show director.“However, the feedback was so good that we decided to bring the entire go-live forward.”
Suppliers include a range of prestigious exhibitors, such as Asa, Blomus, Gefu, Koziol, Leonardo and Robbe & Berking as well as many new customers, including major players such as Berghoff, Butlers, Gilde, Hoff, Kaheku, Städter and Wenko, with companies in the giving segment also taking part. They include Donkey, G. Wurm, Giftcompany, Troika and Räder.
“Even when we were still at the planning stage, we received highly positive responses to the idea of a central data and order platform for the German and international home and living sector,” continues Philipp. “Primarily, this is because Nextrade gives retailers of different sizes a central marketplace with a single login. The large number of positive responses and supplier registrations confirms that we’ve really captured the mood of the time.”
A major benefit, particularly for high-volume retailers, is that when they plan PoS activities or catalogues, they can access the product images and marketing materials from their suppliers.
Retailers and suppliers will be able to discuss the platform on the Nextrade information stand in the foyer of Hall 4.1.
Nextrade has been set up with nmedia, market leader at EDI Home & Living, and the EK/servicegroup.
Top: Nicolaus Gedat, ceo of nmedia and Philipp Ferger at the Nextrade info stand during the launch at Tendence in June.
