Nothing lasts to eternity

In the Eternal City, of all places, the discussions revolved constantly around just the one topic: the mid-June meeting in Rome of the worldwide DIY industry for the 2nd Global DIY Summit was preoccupied for long stretches of the interesting conference programme with what the stationary dealers consider to be a diabolical invention: online commerce. To be more precise, ‘multi-channel’ was the topic preoccupying them. Even when self-assured company chiefs took to the stage it quickly became clear: a patent recipe for a meaningful, that is to say profitable, linking of the old offline business with the new online version has yet to be found. So the anxiety about this new business, which is dominated by completely new players with roots outside the sector, was present there with the audience in their seats. At last the devil incarnate made his entry onstage. He came in the person of Douglas Gurr, vice president Amazon UK. Even if Gurr had not already been the earthly representative of the Evil One (at least in the eyes of the stationary retailers), this appearance alone would have ensured that he won no favours with his audience: so arrogant was his style as a speaker and so cynical his attitude. It was probably not so much the facts that so shocked the audience, since they had been mentioned several times at other points: 200 mio customers in eleven countries in the meantime, a doubling since 2009, a tenfold sales increase since 2003 to a global total of US $ 61 bn right now. Amazon is now becoming increasingly interested in DIY-relevant articles, as Mark Herbek of Cleveland Research has established, for example: in the area of repair and tools it has moved up to feature among the industry’s top ten customers, and has been leader in the paint category since 2013. Now, since April 2012, there have been 750 000 articles from the industrial, office and automotive categories available at Amazon Supply, the company’s business-to-business segment. So will it come down to cooperating with Amazon? Douglas Gurr twisted a point used in his speech, “Why shouldn’t I work with Amazon?” into his fundamental message: “There’s really no escaping us.” But to start at the beginning. It was right that the organisers of the summit, the European retailers’ and manufacturers’ associations EDRA and FEDIYMA, put the topic of ‘multi-channel’ right at the top of the conference agenda. The topic (and assuredly the event’s reputation as well) had the desired effect: far more than 600…