Kremsmuenster.online

Countries

Austria

Policy areas

Organisation name Marktgemeinde Kremsmuenster

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Contact person: Reinhard Haider

reinhard.haider@kremsmuenster.ooe.gv.at

With the establishment of ‘Kremsmuenster.online’, the market community of Kremsmuenster has made the local economy visible on the internet, being the main idea to unite all local branches on this platform. Thus, all companies are presented in a contemporary way and all the products can be viewed and pre-booked, even for smaller enterprises that do not have their own websites. Kremsmuenster.online presents the industry mix clearly and compactly, which is reflected in the cooperation of companies from the retail trade, gastronomy, local agricultural suppliers, and culture and tourism. Being a member of the local working group of economy is the precondition to participate in Kremsmuenster.online.

The group includes approximately 60 different members or shops within a product variety of around 450 articles. The municipality of Kremsmuenster is not only the initiator of Kremsmuenster.online but also a project partner itself, which brings news and an appointment calendar to the platform. With the help of the platform, new and young customers are attracted and the city centre of Kremsmuenster is revived and made more attractive for residents and tourists. Potential consumers are also provided with many functions; the platform has opening hours, the possibility to pre-book products and to reserve a table in a restaurant or a snack for lunch that can be picked up when passing by.

Kremsmuenster municipality was already known as a pioneer in digitalisation, so it is not surprising that Kremsmuenster.online became a pilot project for other regions. The platform has established itself so well as a centre for virtual shopping that it will be further expanded. The innovative project is supported by the EU Leader Programme, which was set up to promote rural areas, and assures the sustainability of the platform. The programme ended in 2020 but discussions took place afterwards in the community to maintain or even expand the platform.

The software is easily adaptable to other cities and towns and, moreover, it can be rented out and thus an exchange of experience can take place. The added value is the possibility that it gives to maintain economic power and to secure jobs in the municipality where the platform is implemented.

The ecological effect triggered by the project should not be forgotten either – because products are ordered online but collected by the customer, it means that distances are short and the packaging of most goods becomes obsolete.

The biggest barrier was to change the mindset of the shop owners and their staff, as they rarely worked with an online presence, so the project started the experiment with only two shops. After few months, the efforts made and the increasing sales laid the foundation to convince all the others.

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