The Chinese online retailer JD.com has submitted a takeover offer for Ceconomy – the German parent company of Mediamarkt, Saturn, and the German digital signage integrator Xplace. What will the future hold for the electronics retailer and Xplace?
Ceconomy: JD.com Acquires Europe’s Largest CE-Retailer
The cute JD.com mascot is unlikely to replace the Mediamarkt and Saturn logos across Europe anytime soon, but the $159 billion (€137 billion) Chinese online retailer plans to acquire a majority stake in Ceconomy. Convergenta will retain a stake of approximately 25.4 percent in Ceconomy.
With this majority stake, JD.com aims to become a leading omnichannel platform for consumer electronics in Europe and reduce its dependence on its domestic Chinese market.
The Düsseldorf/Germany based group Ceconomy operates over 1,000 Mediamarkt and Saturn consumer electronics stores with significant online business and is the owner of digital signage integrator Xplace. In the past fiscal year, Ceconomy generated approximately €22 billion in sales.
Which role will digital signage play?
By acquiring a majority stake in Ceconomy, JD.com will support the digitalization of its core business and, in particular, improve its logistics networks and supply chain management. The digital signage subsidiary Xplace certainly plays no strategic role in the acquisition.
In recent years, things have been relatively quiet for the Northern Germany based digital signage specialist. The integrator has been the digital signage specialist for Mediamarkt and Saturn for over 15 years and, for several years now, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ceconomy. External customers no longer played a particularly significant role, although there has been a noticeable resurgence of activity recently.
Xplace attracted particular attention with what was then the world’s largest ESL rollout and numerous smart digital signage in-store concepts on displayed notebooks and TVs.
Ceconomy has, especially recently, placed a strong focus on shopping experiences in its renovated stores. Digital touchpoint concepts are particularly complex in consumer electronics stores, as retailer screens must be coordinated with shop-in-shop screens from manufacturers, as well as hundreds of displays from on-site TVs. In practice, this sometimes works better, sometimes worse – but Mediamarkt and Saturn, together with Xplace, have managed the balancing act best.
It remains to be seen whether Xplace will once again pursue more projects outside of Ceconomy or focus solely on its sister companies. With JD.com, Ceconomy gains a new Chinese majority shareholder, which, as a digital-first company, is certainly committed to more in-store digital signage than less. The existing Ceconomy Retail Media business – worth approximately €45 million – is also set to be further expanded to include in-store digital signage.
