In episode 165 of Trendakademie, the podcast of Trendforum Retail, Daniel Schnödt talks with both of Spreat's founders. Paul Kirchbichler builds the platform, Mattis Klöpper brings it into the stores. For almost an hour and a half the conversation is about speed, about assortment and about a rule as old as retail itself: buy first, then sell.
The episode was recorded shortly before Trendforum Retail in Frankfurt. The episode is in German - here are the main points.
Selling without buying first
For a brand, the road into a store is long: sales meetings, contracts, and in the end it has to persuade the store to take on a risk. The store, for its part, ties up capital with every new product and gets the bookkeeping on top. Both come from the same rule - the store buys the goods before it is allowed to sell them.
That is exactly where Spreat comes in. Customers take the product off the shelf and pay at the till as usual. Legally, though, they buy directly from the brand. The store receives its margin as a commission, and invoicing and splitting the payment run automatically through the system.
“When I buy something on Amazon, I don't buy the products from Amazon, but through Amazon - directly from the individual sellers. We are bringing exactly this concept to physical retail for the first time.”
Why this is more than consignment
Daniel Schnödt pushes back: consignment stock has been around for a long time. The difference lies in the timing. With consignment, the store still buys the goods itself - just in the second before it sells them on. That solves the risk, but not the effort: buying and selling remain two bookings.
In the marketplace model, the purchase disappears entirely. According to Paul, more than 95 percent of the bookkeeping goes with it; what remains is one commission statement per brand per month. Mattis adds the second point: there is no fixed term. If a product has not moved after six to eight weeks, it goes, and a new one comes in. How the models differ in detail is set out in consignment, commission, shop-in-shop, marketplace.
Testing what nobody would have expected
The example the conversation keeps coming back to is freenet. Its shops now carry make-up sponges and brushes from a beauty influencer, supplements and sweets - next to tariffs and accessories. Nobody would have suggested that at the start, says Paul.
The sweets from Miralina's sold out within six hours of launch. The delivery had been planned to last two to two and a half weeks; the next one went out the same day, in a larger quantity. The sponges showed something else: many customers take not one, but four or eight.
- 6 hrs
- until the first delivery of Miralina's sold out
- 6-8 weeks
- test phase per batch
- 15 min
- until a brand is ready to go on the platform
planned to last two to two and a half weeks
then keep, restock or refresh the space
“What matters is that you see our marketplace technology as one huge playground. We can make recommendations and take a data-driven approach. But in the end, reality shows whether it really works.”
How an assortment reaches the shop floor
Daniel Schnödt plays it through as a fashion retailer struggling with footfall. Mattis describes how such a project starts - with data and suggestions, but also with the experience of the retailer, who knows the store best.
- First call
Which assortment is already there, at what price level, in what surroundings? And are there products you have been thinking about for a while but never dared to try?
- Choosing in the Brandpool
With your own account you filter the products, see the commission and send a request straight to the brand. Delivery usually takes two to three days.
- Test and restock
You start with small quantities. After six to eight weeks you decide: keep, restock or refresh the space. The next batch is already prepared by then.
Placement depends on the goal, too. Trend products meant to bring in new customers work best as a dedicated area - at freenet it is a wall with a “TikTok products” sign. Add-ons meant to raise the basket belong where they are needed: toys next to the children's section, for example, so one child is busy while the other tries on shoes.
For stores with few staff on the floor, every product is rated by how much advice it needs. Mattis distinguishes three levels:
- Self-sellers that need no explanation.
- Products where two sentences on the packaging are enough.
- Products that need advice, where the team has to know more.
Why brands want to be in stores
Young brands in particular sell mostly online - and pay high costs there just to win customers: platform fees, advertising on Instagram and Google. In a store, the store brings the customers and receives its margin for it. For some brands, says Paul, the physical route is even the more lucrative one.
Logistics are nothing new for e-commerce brands either. A reorder from a store runs through the same fulfilment provider as any online order. With large chains, the goods go to the central warehouse anyway and reach the branches with the regular deliveries. To keep returns low, quantities start deliberately small - after about three order cycles, reorders settle at every one to three months.
Selling from next week
How long does it take from the first call to goods on the shelf? Mostly as long as the parcel. Registration takes a quarter of an hour, the card terminal arrives within two days. The fastest start is a separate till set up next to the existing one. Once it shows that it works, the POS integration follows - without waiting for an IT project first.
“If everything goes well, you can be ready to sell in two days. But nobody believes us. So we like to say: we can start next week.”
Where it is heading
Spreat started with small, sustainable makers; today it works with mid-sized retailers and with freenet as its first large chain. The big retailers have long known the marketplace principle from their online shops, says Paul. The next step is to bring it onto their own shop floor.
Mattis thinks further still: he wants Spreat to become the retail backbone for the marketplace model - in Germany and across Europe.
