Retail Trade
As the regional center, the City of Frankfurt takes on far-reaching functions in terms of providing public and private services infrastructure. Frankfurt is an important national retail trade hub, but at the same time the city faces fierce regional competition from a large number of regional and minor regional centers in the Rhine-Main area.
In Frankfurt/Main as well there is evidence of the trends towards larger operating units, particularly in the retail food sector, and of the drop in the number of retail outlets in secondary locations. E-commerce sales and market share are growing continually. Customer behavior with regard to mobility, the shopping experience, and diminishing loyalty to locations and individual outlet are heightening the structural upheavals in the retail trade. These changes are also reflected in urban structures, and there are increasing signs of relocation to city limits and a thinning out of the local supply network. In addition to trends to date and the related customer behavior patterns, retail trends are being strongly influenced by the current COVID-19 situation. To get an overall idea of the structural changes inside Frankfurt’s city limits, plans are to conduct a comprehensive retail survey as soon as the somewhat opaque situation has changed.
Nonetheless, the city has an extensive, varied range of specialist outlets. In comparison with other major cities as well, the structure of centers in Frankfurt/Main is characterized by a large number of shopping centers spread across the entire city and at different levels in the hierarchy.
The urban planning aims on the one hand to strengthen the centers, and on the other to guarantee comprehensive supplies close to residential quarters. Back in 2008, the Frankfurt City Council first adopted a concept for the structure of the retail trade and shopping centers, which was updated in June 2012. It was advanced in 2018, with a focus on “ensuring local supplies” by the City of Frankfurt Dept. of Planning and Wirtschaftsförderung Frankfurt GmbH in cooperation with the Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Trade Association. The city Council resolved in March 2021 to adopt the updated concept which now lays the foundations for developing retailing within the city limits. Concept
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