The role of digital platforms in the (spatial) (re)configuration of brick-and-mortar retail

Research Context

Digital platforms play crucial roles in the economy and everyday life, reflected in their rapidly increasing overall economic significance. This growing "platformization" is also evident in the retail sector. The planned project focuses on the spatial impacts of digital platforms in brick-and-mortar retail and examines the underlying relationships, legitimization processes, and dependencies of small and medium-sized retailers. In addition to the extent of platformization, the project will explore the associated changes and the economic and socio-spatial implications using the concept of "Geographies of Marketization." The retail sector is central to this study because it represents a significant economic and social sector in Germany, accounting for 17% of the GDP (approximately 577 billion euros), about 300,000 companies, and around 3.1 million employees (Destatis 2023; HDE 2023).

Research Objective

The overarching goal of the planned research project is to highlight the dynamics and impacts of digital platforms in German retail and to explain the interactions between technological and institutional changes from a spatial perspective. It is clear that the platformization of (brick-and-mortar) retail necessitates substantial adaptation to the predefined rules and technical interfaces of the platforms. Established power structures and a complex, multi-layered technical infrastructure already exist.
The relationships between platforms and brick-and-mortar retailers are being renegotiated, raising numerous questions regarding value creation, reach, and dependencies, which this project aims to address. It intends to demonstrate that existing concepts of retail spaces need to be expanded, as platform-mediated spaces create a complex amalgamation of socio-spatial relationships and practices both online and offline. The process of marketization and the co-evolution of human and non-human actors in retail must be further explored to understand and influence how retail systems will look in the future, what role they will play in city centers, and how they will spatially manifest.