Jörg Heinemann - Otto

As a subsidiary of the Otto Group, one of the world's largest retail and e-commerce companies, Otto is a leading e-commerce platform based in Germany. Otto focuses on Everywhere Commerce to be accessible to customers in all everyday situations and offer them an excellent shopping experience.

In this insightful interview, Jörg Heinemann, Innovation Evangelist at Otto, delves into the important role of innovation within today’s rapidly evolving market landscape, emphasising the critical need for adaptability, collaboration, and staying current with market trends. He highlights the significance of pushing boundaries through continuous innovation, fostering cooperation even among competitors, and staying attuned to customer- and market trends to maintain competitiveness and drive success.

The Importance of Innovation

Working with innovation at an e-commerce retailer, Jörg works with innovation mostly from a platform perspective. Two KPIs crucial for measuring growth from this perspective are average order value and order frequency. “These are both metrics significantly driven by the platform because the more assortment we have and the faster-moving items, the more people will order and they may often also place larger orders, which is naturally a driver of our success,” Jörg explains.

Additionally, securing a business model by staying up to date is essential in innovation management. For Otto, innovation supports the overall transformation from being a retailer to becoming a platform, but that is not the original task of the innovation within the company, he emphasises. Staying current in time is on the one hand about minimising and avoiding risks, and on the other hand about finding opportunities where the company can optimise their business models to frequently set benchmarks potentially also for the industry.

An example is Otto’s live shopping app on the App Store and Apple TV, and thus on big TV screens. “With our specially developed app for Apple TV, we are bringing live shopping to TV sets for the first time”, Jörg explains. Otto is the first in Germany to do this.

“Essentially, in innovation management, we must secure the business model by staying up to date.”

Collaboration and External Exchange

Jörg further highlights the importance of collaboration for innovation. With collaboration, it is possible to learn from others and develop. Even collaborating with competitors might be very valuable to tackle for example industry-wide challenges such as regulatory issues. “It’s important to not be stuck in old ways of thinking, but looking forward and being brave, not just trusting the experts within your own company but also collaborating with others”, Jörg says. He also mentions that the German ‘risk aware’ mentality sometimes can hinder innovations; “Showcasing the opportunities of technological changes is, of course, parking on the risks. Some things you just have to try out yourself.”

Essential for innovation is also that it’s not only done by the innovation department but that it tries to involve everyone in the company by providing impulses internally and telling people what’s happening on the outside.

As an Innovation Evangelist, Jörg’s tasks comprise both internal and external communication about the topics related to innovation where Otto is active. “It's two-sided, so on one hand, I report internally and notice what's happening, what's important, and what's relevant for us. On the other hand, I do the same outside, reporting about the great things we do.”

“It’s important to not be stuck in old ways of thinking, but looking forward and being brave, not just trusting the experts within your own company but also collaborating with others.”

Following Market Trends

In addition to collaborating internally and externally, a keen understanding of market trends is highlighted as an essential element for business success. Jörg mentions several ways how he keeps up with market trends. The first is tool-based. “There are a lot of different trend databases where you can get alerts on topics of specific interest,” Jörg says, showing his very structured approach to learning.

Within the field of technology, attending conferences is also a big part of staying up to date with innovation, getting insights from others, and showing what you’ve done yourself, but also the media landscape is important. For example, Jörg mentions LinkedIn as a very important platform because it filters news according to one's interests and network. Furthermore, Jörg follows certain newsletters and listens to many podcasts about market trends in different industries; “There is already an e-commerce newsletter, which is not so new anymore. Therefore, it is also important to look across industries to inform oneself broadly and internationally”.

AI is another huge topic. Within the topic of AI, there are various sub-trends relating to process optimisation, delivery cost optimisation, and efficiency improvement of daily work life. The last one is very important for empowering people, Jörg says, but the other sub-themes are also highly relevant, especially for an e-commerce company. One example is the topic of social commerce, including live shopping and shopping clips etc. Jörg strongly believes that social commerce will become increasingly important for inspiration, drawing attention to the necessity of closely aligning with consumer needs and preferences.

A customer-centric approach is not just about meeting existing demands but anticipating future desires, thereby enabling businesses to stay ahead in a fiercely competitive landscape. Jörg sees that as the world becomes more complex, what worked yesterday might not work today anymore. Therefore, continuous learning, development and adaptation are needed for business innovations to survive long-term. 

“No one can predict the future accurately. You can make bets, formulate hypotheses, and consult with experts, but ultimately, it's about belief and courage.”