--- title: "Stories from bricks-and-mortar retail | Spreat" description: "Success Stories from stores and brands, press about Spreat and long reads from the shop floor of physical retail." url: "https://spreat.com/en/stories" language: "en" --- # Spreat Stories. What happens in real stores, what gets written about us and what we learn along the way. - [![Weeks instead of months into physical retail, and what a brand's risk really costs](https://spreat.com/media/images/stories/schnellster-weg-in-den-einzelhandel/cover-en-800.webp) - Retail & insights - Product ## The fastest route into physical retail - and what it really costs a brand With Spreat, the brand carries the stock risk. That is true. But how big it is can be put in euros - and set against the routes where the retailer takes on the risk and gets paid for it. Read the story](https://spreat.com/en/stories/industry/fastest-route-into-retail) - [![Four steps instead of buying stock: how much work the brands' goods take in a store](https://spreat.com/media/images/stories/aufwand-fremde-ware-im-store/cover-en-800.webp) - Retail & insights - Product ## How much work the brands' goods take in a store Space, staff time, return shipping: the brands' goods do not come for free. Here is what a store really does for them - and which work falls away in return. Read the story](https://spreat.com/en/stories/industry/work-brand-goods-in-store) - [![Eight questions from Reddit and forums on consignment, commission and stock without buying it](https://spreat.com/media/images/stories/reddit-fragen-kommission-marktplatz-store/cover-en-800.webp) - Retail & insights ## The marketplace in the store: what retailers and brands ask on Reddit and in forums Eight questions about consignment, commission and stock without buying it, as they appear on Reddit, in German seller forums and on gutefrage - with the community's answers and what Spreat made of them. Read the story](https://spreat.com/en/stories/industry/reddit-questions-consignment-in-store-marketplace) - [![Two routes to the till: standalone alongside, or connected by API](https://spreat.com/media/images/stories/kassenanbindung/cover-en-800.webp) - Retail & insights - Product ## POS integration: how someone else's goods run through your existing till “We already have a till system” is the most common objection - and the easiest to answer. There are two routes, and one of them does not touch your systems at all. Read the story](https://spreat.com/en/stories/product/pos-integration) - [![Slide from the webinar: five use cases for the Viertelladen](https://spreat.com/media/images/stories/webinar-fashionconsult-2026/cover-800.webp) - Press & newsroom - Retail & insights ## The questions retailers really ask Paul Kirchbichler and Mattis Klöpper in the fashionconsult web meeting - an hour on the marketplace model, hard numbers from the freenet project and an open Q&A with fashion retailers. fashionconsult Read the story](https://spreat.com/en/stories/press/webinar-fashionconsult-2026) - [![Trend display with Spreat products in a freenet shop](https://spreat.com/media/images/stories/freenet/cover-800.webp) - Success Stories - Retail & insights ## freenet: new assortment, existing till How freenet added an extra assortment to its shops - with no integration work of its own. Read the story](https://spreat.com/en/stories/success/freenet) - Rather ask us directly? Most questions are answered in 45 minutes - no commitment, nothing to prepare. [Book a call](https://spreat.com/en/stores/appointment) - [![Announcement: both founders speak in Frankfurt at the end of September](https://spreat.com/media/images/stories/trendforum-retail-2026/cover-en-800.webp) - Retail & insights - Company ## Both founders at Trendforum Retail 2026 Paul Kirchbichler and Mattis Klöpper speak in Frankfurt at the end of September - about space, assortment and who carries the risk. Trendforum Retail Read the story](https://spreat.com/en/stories/company/trendforum-retail-2026) - [![Shop window of the Viertelladen in Düsseldorf-Unterbilk](https://spreat.com/media/images/stories/viertelladen/cover-800.webp) - Success Stories - Retail & insights ## The store where Spreat started A neighborhood store in Düsseldorf-Unterbilk, 33 producers on the shop floor - and the question of why this does not work everywhere. Read the story](https://spreat.com/en/stories/success/viertelladen) - [![A curated selection with one place left open](https://spreat.com/media/images/stories/sortiment-concept-store/cover-en-800.webp) - Retail & insights ## Assortment for concept stores: the selection is the product, the capital is the limit A concept store lives on showing brands you find nowhere else. Those are exactly the brands that hurt most to buy. Read the story](https://spreat.com/en/stories/industry/assortment-for-concept-stores) - [![Two separate inventories in one shop: your own and someone else's](https://spreat.com/media/images/stories/inventur-fremde-ware/cover-en-800.webp) - Retail & insights - Product ## Stocktaking when the goods are not yours Third-party goods stand in your shop but do not appear in your stock. What you still have to count, what you do not - and why the metrics look different afterwards. Read the story](https://spreat.com/en/stories/industry/stocktaking-goods-you-do-not-own) - [![Two areas of a bike shop: bikes with capital tied up, accessories without](https://spreat.com/media/images/stories/sortiment-fahrradladen/cover-en-800.webp) - Retail & insights ## Assortment for bike shops: the capital sits in the bikes, the margin hangs on the accessories A bike ties up four figures and stands still all winter. The accessories beside it decide the month - and they are the part you do not have to buy. Read the story](https://spreat.com/en/stories/industry/assortment-for-bike-shops) - [![A till transaction in which the amount is split at the same moment](https://spreat.com/media/images/stories/kauf-direkt-bei-der-marke/cover-en-800.webp) - Retail & insights - Product ## How a purchase in a store legally lands with the brand The customer picks up the product, pays at the till, gets her receipt. Nothing changes for her. What does change happens in the same moment, behind it. Read the story](https://spreat.com/en/stories/product/buying-directly-from-the-brand) - [![One large piece of furniture against many small home accessories](https://spreat.com/media/images/stories/sortiment-moebelhaus/cover-en-800.webp) - Retail & insights ## Assortment for furniture stores: a lot of space, very little turnover A sofa stands for months before anyone buys it. The accessories around it turn in weeks - and they are the part nobody has to pre-finance. Read the story](https://spreat.com/en/stories/industry/assortment-for-furniture-stores) - [![Four cost blocks of a bad buy, the purchase price only the first](https://spreat.com/media/images/stories/was-ein-fehleinkauf-kostet/cover-en-800.webp) - Retail & insights ## What a bad buy really costs The purchase price is the smaller part. Add tied-up capital, floor space, the markdown - and the one nobody writes down: the buy you did not make instead. Read the story](https://spreat.com/en/stories/industry/what-a-bad-buy-costs) - [![Typographic card for the Mirakl Summit on 16 April 2026 in Munich](https://spreat.com/media/images/stories/mirakl-summit-2026/cover-en-800.webp) - Retail & insights - Company ## Mirakl Summit 2026 On 16 April the marketplace industry met in Munich. A day about assortments the retailer does not own - standard online for twenty years, rare on the shop floor. Mirakl Read the story](https://spreat.com/en/stories/company/mirakl-summit-2026) - [![Five questions in BANKINGCLUB: commission instead of retail margin as a financing question](https://spreat.com/media/images/stories/bankingclub-fintech-world/cover-en-800.webp) - Press & newsroom - Retail & insights ## Five questions at BANKINGCLUB Why commission instead of retail margin is also a financing question - Mattis Klöpper in the Fintech-World section. BANKINGCLUB Read the story](https://spreat.com/en/stories/press/bankingclub-fintech-world) - [![Two areas of a bookshop: books with a right of return, non-book without](https://spreat.com/media/images/stories/sortiment-buchhandlung/cover-en-800.webp) - Retail & insights ## Assortment for bookshops: books can go back, everything else cannot The non-book range carries a growing share of the margin - and it is exactly the part a bookshop buys outright. Why that is the real calculation. Read the story](https://spreat.com/en/stories/industry/assortment-for-bookshops) - [![A talk on the Growth stage at the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce, the audience listening through headsets](https://spreat.com/media/images/stories/boost-your-business-2026/cover-800.webp) - Retail & insights - Company ## Boost your Business 2026 Five stages, more than fifty talks, a building full of small businesses. Exactly the room our model was built for. Hamburg Chamber of Commerce Read the story](https://spreat.com/en/stories/company/boost-your-business-2026) - [![The Spreat stand at EuroShop 2026 in Düsseldorf](https://spreat.com/media/images/stories/euroshop-2026/cover-800.webp) - Product - Company ## What fits on a trade fair stand A shelf, a tablet, a card reader - that was all there was at EuroShop. A store does not need more either. Read the story](https://spreat.com/en/stories/product/euroshop-2026) - [![Two boards above each other: the farm's own goods below, products via Spreat above](https://spreat.com/media/images/stories/hofladen-sortiment/cover-en-800.webp) - Retail & insights ## What could sit next to your own eggs in the farm shop A farm shop has what town centers fight for: people who come because of where things are from. And an assortment that ends where the farm ends. Read the story](https://spreat.com/en/stories/industry/farm-shop-assortment) - [![Spreat receiving the award on stage at FinTraWorld 2026](https://spreat.com/media/images/stories/fintraworld-2026/cover-800.webp) - Press & newsroom - Company ## FinTraWorld 2026: winner of the Payment track Two days at MOTORWORLD Cologne, a two-stage pitch competition - and an award for the way money flows at Spreat. Read the story](https://spreat.com/en/stories/company/fintraworld-2026) - [![Several locations that together make a meaningful comparison](https://spreat.com/media/images/stories/stores-fuer-einen-test/cover-en-800.webp) - Retail & insights ## How many stores does a meaningful test need? One shop tells you nothing about your market, only about one shop. How to set up a physical test so that a decision is possible at the end. Read the story](https://spreat.com/en/stories/industry/how-many-stores-for-a-test) - [![The pop-up store in the center of Rhede, decorated for Christmas](https://spreat.com/media/images/stories/popup-rhede/cover-800.webp) - Success Stories - Retail & insights ## A store for over 30 days where a space stood empty How the town of Rhede turned an empty space in the town center into Christmas trade - with eight brands from the region and without a single euro spent on stock. Read the story](https://spreat.com/en/stories/success/popup-rhede) - [![A year in which the space stays the same and the turnover does not](https://spreat.com/media/images/stories/sortiment-gartencenter/cover-en-800.webp) - Retail & insights ## Assortment for garden centres: the space stays, the season goes From November to February the same space stands there that makes the turnover in May. What sits on it in those months decides a quarter of the year. Read the story](https://spreat.com/en/stories/industry/assortment-for-garden-centres) - [![A podcast waveform: from the physical shop to the marketplace](https://spreat.com/media/images/stories/podcast-handel-kompetent/cover-en-800.webp) - Press & newsroom - Retail & insights ## From bricks-and-mortar store to marketplace Mattis Klöpper on the “handelkompetent” podcast by the Mittelstand-Digital Zentrum Handel - on marketplace logic on real retail space. Mittelstand-Digital Zentrum Handel Read the story](https://spreat.com/en/stories/press/podcast-handelkompetent) - [![A balance between tied-up capital and the choice customers expect](https://spreat.com/media/images/stories/rechnung-kleiner-store/cover-en-800.webp) - Retail & insights ## The math of a small store Every euro tied up in goods is a euro that is not in the bank. Why small stores still need a bigger assortment - and how the two fit together. Read the story](https://spreat.com/en/stories/industry/small-store-math) - [![The talk's three steps: marketplace, basics, experience](https://spreat.com/media/images/stories/hubday-2025/cover-en-800.webp) - Retail & insights - Company ## HubDay 2025 Paul Kirchbichler at HubDay on the point where a store stops owning the goods it sells. Read the story](https://spreat.com/en/stories/company/hubday-2025) - [![A stock that turns three times a year](https://spreat.com/media/images/stories/lagerumschlag-berechnen/cover-en-800.webp) - Retail & insights ## Calculating stock turnover: what the figure says about your shop How often does your stock turn in a year? The formula takes two minutes. It gets interesting at the question of why your figure looks the way it does. Read the story](https://spreat.com/en/stories/industry/stock-turnover-calculation) - [![Selection funnel from 212 PropTechs down to three nominees, Spreat highlighted](https://spreat.com/media/images/stories/proptech-germany-award-2025/cover-en-800.webp) - Retail & insights - Company ## PropTech Germany Award 2025 Eleven categories, three nominees each. In Tenants and Users in Focus, Spreat was one of the final three - next to two providers from the property industry. blackprint, REAL Pitches Read the story](https://spreat.com/en/stories/company/proptech-germany-award-2025) - [![Two zones in a bakery: counter with same-day goods, shelf with shelf-stable ones](https://spreat.com/media/images/stories/sortiment-baeckerei-cafe/cover-en-800.webp) - Retail & insights ## Assortment for bakeries and cafés: the shelf beside the counter Fresh goods sell the same day or not at all. That is exactly why what keeps beside them is interesting - and exactly where the limit sits. Read the story](https://spreat.com/en/stories/industry/assortment-for-bakeries-and-cafes) - [![A floor area divided into square metres, with the figure per metre](https://spreat.com/media/images/stories/was-ein-quadratmeter-verdienen-muss/cover-en-800.webp) - Retail & insights ## What a square metre of retail space has to earn Rent, service charges, staff, divided by the floor area: that gives you a figure per square metre. How to work it out - and why it settles nothing on its own. Read the story](https://spreat.com/en/stories/industry/what-a-square-metre-must-earn) - [![Four items of trade terms that fall due before the first sale](https://spreat.com/media/images/stories/konditionen-im-handel/cover-en-800.webp) - Retail & insights ## Co-op advertising, payment terms, minimum orders: what retail actually asks for The terms in a listing conversation sound like detail and are the real calculation. What each item means - and what they add up to. Read the story](https://spreat.com/en/stories/industry/retail-terms-explained) - [![Two ways goods reach a store: buying versus consignment](https://spreat.com/media/images/stories/kommissionsware-einzelhandel/cover-en-800.webp) - Retail & insights ## Consignment stock in retail: who owns the goods and who pays for them Consignment stock sits in the store but belongs to the supplier until it sells. Payment follows the sale. What that means for assortment, capital and bookkeeping. Read the story](https://spreat.com/en/stories/industry/consignment-stock-retail) - [![Spreat on stage at the K5 Commerce Award 2025](https://spreat.com/media/images/stories/k5-commerce-award-2025/cover-800.webp) - Press & newsroom - Company ## K5 Commerce Award 2025 for Spreat Awarded in the Omnichannel Solution category - handed out at the K5 Future Retail Conference in Berlin. K5 Read the story](https://spreat.com/en/stories/company/k5-commerce-award-2025) - [![Four models side by side, told apart by ownership and seller](https://spreat.com/media/images/stories/konsignation-kommission-marktplatz/cover-en-800.webp) - Retail & insights - Product ## Consignment, commission, shop-in-shop, marketplace: which is which? Four terms for four different things that get mixed up constantly. The difference hangs on two questions: who owns the goods, and in whose name are they sold? Read the story](https://spreat.com/en/stories/industry/consignment-commission-shop-in-shop-marketplace) - [![Four routes a brand takes into retail, told apart by when payment happens](https://spreat.com/media/images/stories/wege-in-den-einzelhandel/cover-en-800.webp) - Retail & insights - Product ## The four routes a brand takes into retail - and what each one costs Listing, wholesale, your own space, marketplace. Four routes into a shop that differ less in effort than in the question of who pays first. Read the story](https://spreat.com/en/stories/industry/routes-into-retail) - [![A euro moving between the bank account and the goods](https://spreat.com/media/images/stories/kapitalbindung-einzelhandel/cover-en-800.webp) - Retail & insights ## Tied-up capital in retail: why every euro in stock is missing from the bank Bought stock is paid-for money that has not earned anything yet. How to work out your tied-up capital, what it costs you over a year, and which levers exist. Read the story](https://spreat.com/en/stories/industry/tied-up-capital-retail) - [![Two ways compared: costs stacked up before any sale against 5% per sale](https://spreat.com/media/images/stories/marke-im-fremden-store/cover-en-800.webp) - Retail & insights - Product ## What it costs to be in someone else's store The classic route onto the shop floor starts with a conversation in which someone is asked to take a risk. There is a second route - and it adds up differently. Read the story](https://spreat.com/en/stories/industry/brand-in-someone-elses-store) - [![Ten shortlisted names, Spreat highlighted](https://spreat.com/media/images/stories/rtih-awards-2024/cover-en-800.webp) - Press & newsroom - Company ## RTIH Innovation Awards 2024 Ten startups made the shortlist for Startup of the Year at the British RTIH Innovation Awards - Spreat was one of them. Retail Technology Innovation Hub Read the story](https://spreat.com/en/stories/company/rtih-awards-2024) - [![The Newcomer Battle finalists on the main stage at RETAIL NXT 2024](https://spreat.com/media/images/stories/retail-nxt-2024/cover-800.webp) - Retail & insights - Company ## Newcomer Battle at RETAIL NXT 2024 Five minutes on the main stage, the audience votes by app - and Spreat walks off as the most innovative retail startup. Read the story](https://spreat.com/en/stories/company/retail-nxt-2024) - [![The digitalPIONEER 2023 winners in Aachen](https://spreat.com/media/images/stories/digital-pioneer-2023/cover-800.webp) - Press & newsroom - Company ## digitalPIONEER 2023 Five companies from the Aachen region were honored at digitalSUMMIT - Spreat was one of them. AGIT Read the story](https://spreat.com/en/stories/company/digitalpioneer-2023) ## Stay in touch. What happens between the stories shows up here first. - [LinkedIn Follow](https://www.linkedin.com/company/spreat) - [Instagram Follow](https://www.instagram.com/spreat.official/) ## And how about you? Store or brand - the way in is a different one. Tell us which side you are coming from. [I have a store](https://spreat.com/en/stores) [I have a brand](https://spreat.com/en/brands)