Together towards the future
At the start of the event, the Managing Director of Markant AG, Dominik Scheid, gave an insight into the developments at Markant Group: «We are experiencing a significant increase in the utilisation of our services. Our partners demand reliability, efficiency, enhanced processes and increased productivity.» Data security therefore spans across all of Markant's services and an effective package of cyber security services ensures a high level of resilience. «We can only achieve this through consistent digitalisation, constant renovation of existing systems and adaptation of data management,» says Dominik Scheid.
The Markant marketplace should also be emphasised: «We have come much closer to our vision of offering Markant as the leading digital B2B marketplace in Europe. Over 2,500 companies have already registered,» he reported. AI is also playing an increasingly important role: «Generative AI can become a game changer for the entire industry: We have therefore founded the start-up Retail.ai to provide our partners with the best possible support,» says Dominik Scheid. Markant already offers the first AI-enhanced services with «ProductWizard» and «ImageOptimizer». However, the high level of digital networking is only one aspect of the company's success: «Our culture of partnership is at least as important. Please consider us as a participatory company in which progress is achieved through trust and cooperation.»
Afterwards, Tomáš Sláma, Managing Director of Markant Česko / Markant Slovensko, presented the status and vision for the near future of the national company. «Markant Česko has been operating for 25 years and Markant Slovensko for 20 years,» began Tomáš Sláma. On this basis, he discussed the further development of Markant's services in the four areas of payment services, EDI transaction data, product data and market and price analyses. The importance of the services was also emphasised by four Markant partners in video messages: Klára Vignard, Digital Operations Lead CZ & SK at AVON Cosmetics, Viliam Pauliny, Head of Omnichannel at AVON Cosmetics, Karol Jakubek, Managing Director at ROSSMANN Czech Republic, Kamila Wöllnerová, Chief Operating Officer at Gabriella Salvete and Radek Chrástecký, Key Account Manager at Schicht, spoke about the benefits and potential of the services. «We will continue to work on fulfilling all of our partners' requirements,» emphasised Tomáš Sláma.
Markant really values its partners' opinions. This was followed by a live interview with Martina Horká, Managing Director of dm drogerie markt s.r.o., and Michal Chocholoušek, Sales Director of Hipp Czech s r.o., and Tomáš Sláma. They offered an insight into the needs of trade and industry and went into more detail about the cooperation with Markant. Martina Horká confirmed that Markant pays close attention to what they need as a partner and ensures rapid implementation. Tomáš Sláma assured, «We want to further reduce manual processes: Our top priority at the moment is to ensure that partners who do not use GDSN no longer have to maintain data manually in order to minimise errors.»
Top-class speakers
Ladislav Csengeri, Managing Director CZ/SK of Consumer Panel Services GfK / YouGov, gave the partners an overview of the current change in consumption in his presentation: «Where are your buyers and where do they go from here?».
Due to inflation, many consumers in the Czech Republic and Slovakia have reduced their spending by downtrading. In addition, purchasing opportunities have increased in both countries, which also opens up new opportunities for retailers and suppliers. Promotions are popular – around 70 percent of customers in the Czech Republic use them, and around 64 percent in Slovakia. However, Ladislav Csengeri emphasised that promotions will not expand the customer base in the long term: «Customer loyalty continues to play a major role».
The market is currently dependent on older buyer groups, as Generation X currently accounts for the largest share and has the greatest purchasing power. The purchasing behaviour of the generations differs significantly: While older consumers are more likely to use brochures, younger groups are more likely to order food by delivery service, which also has an impact on purchasing behaviour. For him, one thing is clear: «The topics of health, sustainability, lifestyle, climate change, globalisation and technology will shape buyer behaviour in the future.»
He then moved on from consumer behaviour to economics: in his lecture «Deglobalisation – a seasonal issue or a long-term phenomenon?», Mojmír Hampl, economist, banker and journalist with degrees from the University of Economics in Prague and the University of Surrey in the UK, spoke about the implications for Europe and the world.
«A lot is happening without us being aware of it, but the trend towards deglobalisation affects us all,» he emphasised by way of introduction. A combination of three factors has greatly helped Europe: Cheap energy from Russia, protection from the United States and the golden age of globalisation and the division of labour. Both Europe and the whole world has benefited greatly from this. In his presentation, he focused primarily on the third point and went into more detail on the current geopolitical tensions and deglobalisation trends.
«The changes within trade policy and restrictions on trade affect us all. We need to pay more attention to the trend and ask ourselves which side we are on in a global conflict,» he emphasised, criticising the fact that too little attention is being paid to this major political issue: «We need to be better prepared, because public debt is rising all over the world. The ratio of gross national product to debt is higher than it was after the Second World War and the trend is continuing. We are consuming the future today.»
Sebastian Raßmann, Head of CoE Inspiration TRENDONE GmbH, travelled into the future with the audience in his presentation «2030: the future of retail – between vision and reality» and outlined a world full of new technologies.
Being woken up by a contact lens and robots doing the housework, flying to work in an aerotaxi and everything becoming transactive. Entertainment is becoming three-dimensional, and the real and digital worlds are merging more and more. «We can't predict what the future will look like, but we can do two things: anticipate the future and shape it,» he emphasised.
He sees great potential for the future of retail: For example, the metaverse will become a new interface through which physical products can be purchased. Topics such as spatial commerce and avatarisation will also be exciting for the retail sector and the use of AI will continue to increase. Smart data and predictive analytics can increase market efficiency, and planet centricity combines the local trend with convenience. Health hubs can even be used to integrate healthcare services in supermarkets. He advised, «Look at the world from a different perspective; that opens up new horizons.»
Finally, Václav Dolejší and Lucie Stuchlíková of the Czech podcast «Vlevo dole» («Bottom left») discussed the topic «How long until the digitalisation of the state works better than in the private sector?». Using pictures and anecdotes, they brought the popular podcast to the stage and discussed the attitude towards digitalisation of Czech politicians in recent years in a political digression.
Daniel Stach and Tomáš Sláma expressed their thanks for the varied presentations. The event was accompanied by the musical sounds of the famous Czech composer Bedřich Smetana on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of his birth. The topics were discussed and debated at a closing lunch together. The 9th Information Day will take place on 16.10.2025.
