ROLAND – Regional online trade

The ROLAND project strives to establish a regional online marketplace with distributors from the region Altmark.

Recent studies have verified that online trading is able to open up an additional channel of distribution for domiciled retailers with an extension in form of a regional marketplace, that would strengthen the position of their residential trade and also prevents or at least reduces impending losses of market shares to large online merchants.

Regional online marketplaces allow regional retailers to participate in the growing trend towards online trading, value creation stages remain in the region and customers obtain an easy enabling to the trend of regional focus in their purchasing behaviour without having to renounce on comfort and quality.

With the development of an adequate regional online marketplace, the project Regional Online Trading (ROLAND) wants to develop the preconditions for owners of retail shops in the Altmark in order to have a greater profit of the online trading that has been rather supra-regional trend up to now.

The regional distributor platform offers the following functionalities to distributors:

  • Presence of the distributors
  • Reservation of products
  • online sales of products
  • distributor deals (special, short-term offer from distributors, e.g. product of the month)

During the first promotion phase a prototype of a regional online marketplace has been developed, which will be introduced and enhanced in the second promotion phase.

Project team

  • Project Management: Prof. Dr. Volker Wiedemer
  • Project participation: Prof. Dr. Michael Herzog, Prof. Dr. Günter Mey
  • Research Assistant: Theresia Laske, M.Sc.
  • Student Assistant: Paul Osterburg

Promotion

The project is funded by the Federal Programme “Rural Development” and implemented within the framework of the model project “Land(auf)Schwung” of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL). The project has been extended and is currently in its 2nd funding phase.

1st funding phase

Duration: 01 June 2017 - 30 June 2018

Grant amount: 99.912,28 €

2nd funding phase

Duration: 01 July 2018 - 30 June 2019

Grant amount: 98.199,50 €

Photos Sponsors

Foto: Kerstin Seela
Foto: Bastian Ehl