At the end of the semester, we had the pleasure of welcoming Robert Hadzetovic, Head of E-Commerce and Shöpping at Austrian Post, as a speaker in guest lecture series “Praxisdialog”. He gave us an unvarnished look at e-commerce - with some extremely exciting insights. Here are the top 3:

1. after the COVID boom and post-COVID correction, e-commerce is returning to its pre-COVID growth rates of around 5% CAGR.

2. the overall economic importance of online retail should not be underestimated – especially not in a country that is (not very pleasingly) the world leader in terms of losing purchasing power to neighbouring countries.

3. if even the really big players are struggling, it shows how challenging it is to find a successful business model: From high customer acquisition costs and the challenge of being found online at all, to packaging, order picking and fulfilment cost – the business is tough! And when high returns are added to the mix, things get really tight from a business perspective.

What an exciting afternoon! Many thanks for this great presentation, which we were able to round off in a relaxed atmosphere over ice cream with our students.