emiigo - Search engine for retail products

The future in retail is digital and is also increasingly presenting Bocholt's retailers with challenges and new developments. Bocholt's city marketing has already carried out several projects in cooperation with the Immobilien- und Standortgemeinschaften (ISG) Altstadt Bocholt e.V. to support stationary trade with digital solutions. In 2019, the project "smarter trading Bocholt" was carried out, in 2022 there were consulting offers by digital coach Fabian Kowalski for Bocholt traders so the online presence could be improved at first Bocholt traders. "We want to actively support the digital visibility of Bocholt's retailers and think digital and stationary retail together," says Ludger Dieckhues, Managing Director of the Wirtschaftsförderungs- und Stadtmarketing Gesellschaft Bocholt. The ISG Altstadt e.V., together with Bocholt's city marketing, is pursuing the goal of linking stationary retail with digital solutions and thus became aware of the start-up emiigo, which specialises in precisely this - seeing digitalisation not as competition for stationary retail, but rather as an opportunity.

emiigo(www.emiigo.de) is a search engine for locally available products in retail. It operates according to the motto "Search online - find a product in a nearby shop". The newly developed search engine aims - by focusing on the needs of the users - to bring more customers into the city centre shops in order to increase the turnover for the retailers and to generally increase the frequency in the city centre. Available products in the vicinity are displayed with real-time stock and vicinity map. In addition to regular and walk-in customers, this also appeals to local couch shoppers by combining brick-and-mortar retail with the online convenience they are accustomed to. emiigo does not focus on shipping, customers are led into shops. By increasing local shopping in shops and simultaneously decreasing online orders, delivery traffic and returns should be reduced. emiigo answers questions like "Where can I buy a parasol near me?" , "Where can I find sustainable shoes in my size?" or "It's my grandson's birthday today - where can I find the Lego ship today?". The digital solution of the "Single Point of Search" makes the stationary retail trade searchable online and thus links up with the digital retail trade.

The founders of the start-up are Lisa Schlömer and Lennart Schwark, who was born in Rhede. emiigo works together with the Bocholt-based IT company reanmo and is supported by the IT partner, especially in the areas of IT implementation and connection to the retailers' merchandise management systems. Lennart Schwark from Rhede and André Schlüß from Bocholt, managing director of reanmo, have known each other since childhood and had the idea to work together professionally.

At the end of last year, Bocholt's city marketing already held initial talks with the founder Lennart Schwark and together they started a project for the members of the ISG Altstadt e.V.. The cooperation project is intended to support Bocholt's retailers in linking digital solutions with stationary retail - together for a future-proof and lively city centre. At the start of the project, Stadtmarketing Bocholt will assume the costs for the connection to emiigo for 25 shops of the ISG Altstadt for the first 12 months. The first Bocholt shops have already been connected to emiigo, and more shops will follow in the coming weeks. Among the first shops are, for example, Nähkasten, Ringfoto Kornek, Sir Henry's, Marc O'Polo and Take me home. Across Germany, more than 500 shops in almost 80 cities are already searchable online via emiigo.