3 Questions for… Christina Schrumpf

Many people today purchase organic products at supermarkets or discount stores. How can organic retailers encourage more people to shop at their stores again?

It is, of course, a challenging situation for us now that we are in direct competition with discounters. However, I am convinced that we can make a difference by offering a very good shopping experience. For me, that means quality and service. We differentiate ourselves not through price, but through quality—and also through the fact that we have a much wider range of products in our stores and can provide much more information about the products. We need to present these well and (sometimes) explain them. There are still many brands which are well-known in niche markets or organic shops, but still unknown to the general public. The wider audience is more familiar with the organic section in discount stores or conventional retailers. This is why it is so important, both in general and for our communication, that our partners become more widely known and promote themselves – both online and out of home.

Storytelling is also an important factor here. What stories do organic brands need to tell in order to gain more visibility while remaining authentic?

Storytelling is one of my favorite areas in the field of Organic marketing. We come from around 30 years of communication in which the organic food trade has distinguished itself from conventional retailers by pointing fingers. The narrative was: You have to shop with us because the alternatives are bad—they use pesticides and so on. I am convinced that we need to move toward positive communication. We need to show what we have: the excellent quality, the unpackaged fruit and vegetables, all the stories of our partners and our producers. There is so much we can report on throughout the entire supply chain. In most cases, the end result is a product that tastes really good. We need to talk about that and focus on it. Most people buy both: from conventional retailers and from us in organic specialty stores. To ensure that they don't feel attacked for their purchasing behavior when they shop with us, but rather feel comfortable, they should learn what they are getting more of when they come to us, rather than what is bad about buying elsewhere.

What significance does BIOFACH have for VollCorner?

For us, BIOFACH is an incredibly wonderful place to meet our network and all our partners. We have a large number of sales representatives and key account managers whom we only see here once a year. So the trade fair is very important for our sales department, but also in terms of innovations. We receive many products in the mail, but often they are not quite right for us. We actually discover most of our new products at BIOFACH. Especially those that we would not have thought of in the first place and that would not have come to us at VollCorner. In recent years, we have discovered cool and unique brands at the trade fair that are now on our shelves and are very successful.