Ten stores planned

MediaMarkt focuses on smaller Xpress stores

MediaMarkt's Express stores have a sales area of 800 to 1,200 square meters and are designed to offer "easy and convenient" shopping.

(Bild: APA/HELMUT FOHRINGER)

The German electronics retailer MediaMarkt wants to grow further in Austria with so-called XPress stores. "Growth is happening in small store formats," says MediaMarkt Austria CEO Jan Niclas Brandt with conviction. 

The Express stores are "an important link to the online business and Click & Collect". There are currently "XPress" locations in Leibnitz, Gmunden and Fürstenfeld. Over the next five years, up to ten more technology "local suppliers" are set to open.

The stores have a sales area of 800 to 1200 square meters and are designed to offer "easy and convenient" shopping. By comparison, an average MediaMarkt store is 1500 to 4000 square meters in size. There are also two flagship locations of the electronics chain in Vienna and Graz with up to 7000 square meters including brand showrooms.

Some of the larger stores are now to become smaller "XPress" stores. "This is very location-dependent. There is no exact figure for how many 'core' stores are to be converted," says Brandt. 

Lots of competition in the online business, few brick-and-mortar competitors
With annual sales of over one billion euros, MediaMarkt is the largest electronics retailer in Austria and employs around 2,800 people in 56 stores. The chain generates around a quarter of its turnover from online sales as well as online pre-ordering and local pick-up (Click & Collect).

Following numerous insolvencies in the domestic electronics retail sector over the past ten years, including Niedermeyer, Hartlauer is MediaMarkt's only Austria-wide brick-and-mortar competitor. Online, the electronics chain competes with Amazon, Electronic4you.at and Cyberport as well as hundreds of other online retailers.

"Extremely tense market environment"
The retail sector and MediaMarkt are feeling the effects of consumer restraint due to the economic recession that has been ongoing for two years. "The market environment is extremely tense. At MediaMarkt Austria, sales in October showed a mixed picture," says the company boss.

an Niclas Brandt has been the new CEO of MediaMarkt Austria and Switzerland since April 1.

(Bild: MediaMarkt)

Consumer sentiment "picked up" in November. The company registered "extremely strong" demand for smartphones and "very strong" business with televisions. Demand for kitchen and beauty appliances is "extremely high". Business with IT products, on the other hand, is "very subdued".

Free gaming experience Xperion to come to Vienna
The electronics retailer has high hopes for Christmas business. "Black Friday is very late this year. Christmas business is an incredibly important phase," says Brandt. "A week before Christmas, customers want to take products home and no longer order them online." In the long term, health devices and hearing aids are also "an exciting business area" for MediaMarkt and the range is to be continuously expanded. "But we're not going to turn MediaMarkt into Amazon," Brandt emphasized. Next year, there will be a shop-in-shop trial in Germany with a health equipment provider.

MediaMarkt wants to continue to grow in the computer games segment in Austria. The consumer electronics retailer's free gaming experience Xperion could open a location in Vienna next year. "If everything works out in 2025, otherwise in 2026," announced Brandt.