EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Wirhelfen.shop is an online platform, that aims to mobilize mainly the age group of under 35-year-olds to donate. Their platform combines a sustainable marketplace, where you as a consumer can buy sustainable products (including fashion), a donation platform, that enables people to donate money, time and goods for NPOs and social projects, as well as a platform that cooperates with big firms in various campaigns in order to multiply donations.

Goal

The overarching goal of the project was to support Wirhelfen.shop with their market expansion into Germany. To deliver the best results, we thoroughly analysed the German market and its competitors, so that we could give Wirhelfen.shop a better understanding of their current market position. Competitors in both domains, sustainable marketplaces and donation platforms, needed to be analysed in terms of their business model, pricing and services. The second goal was to find potential sustainable product partners in Germany and to gain deeper insights into the decision-making process of sustainable companies, when deciding whether to sell through a marketplace or not. In addition, we identified possible multipliers in Berlin and presented different campaigns, that would have a big potential of boosting the public awareness of Wirhelfen.shop.

Methodology

Two different Methods were applied. On the one hand, we conducted interviews with sustainable marketplaces and fundraising departments of NPOs, founders of sustainable companies and potential multipliers. In total we conducted 11 interviews. Our insights from the interviews were combined with extensive desk research. We analysed 16 donation platforms and 15 sustainable marketplaces. Using different categories and scales for each category, various positioning maps were created for the German market. In addition, we analysed different Influencer marketplaces and determined, which would be the best fit for the demands of Wirhelfen.shop. Furthermore, we reached out to over 50 different companies, sports clubs, theatres and museums to find out, if they would be willing to support a platform like Wirhelfen.shop and possible reasons, why that would be not the case.

Results

Combining the desk research with the insights gained from the interviews, we could help Wirhelfen.shop to gain a deeper understanding of where their current position between existing competitors is. We were also able to identify various multipliers in the region of Berlin and describe possible campaigns that could be established together. Furthermore, we came up with various suggestions on how to communicate their USP, structure their website, expand their services on the platform and improve their onboarding process with new partners. All in all, we provided Wirhelfen.shop with concrete steps they should pursue, in order to have a great chance of success when expanding their business to Berlin.

Cooperation Partner

• Wirhelfen.Shop - www.wirhelfen.shop.at
  
  Albrechtskreithgasse 19-21
  Ort: A-1160 Wien, Österreich
  Telefon: +43 1 87812-0
  Fax: +43 1 87812-9100

Contact Person 

• Georg Woschnagg - georg.woschnagg@goood.de

• Ina Bernhard - ina.bernhard@deeeds.org

Student Team

• Emely Kinsky

• Leonie Mende

• Eva-Marie Öllinger

• Sarah Wandaller

• Martin Rudolf

Project Manager

• Peter Vandor

• Reinhard Millner