Most online shops in Germany have a digital magazine

What do 93 percent of the largest online retailers in Germany have in common? They all have a digital corporate magazine. In Germany, 28 of the 30 biggest online stores have at least one company magazine. Only Media Markt and Medion don’t play along.

The German digital marketing agency Seokratie looked at the 30 most successful online shops in Germany to determine how many of them runs a company magazine, which it described as something that’s digitally available, with regular editorial content that’s separated from the home page, no PR messages and written in German. It found out that 28 of the online shops, or 93 percent, have at least one blog or magazine.

Most of them have just one magazine, but there are some ecommerce players with more content to share. For example, myToys and Douglas offer two kinds of magazines, while Zalando has four. And Otto even has five different types of corporate magazines. Altogether, the 30 online shops operate a total of 37 company magazines.

Otto has magazines for different types of consumers

Seokratie found out that if an online shop has several magazines, these are also aimed at different target groups. Otto for example has a magazine about sustainability, a magazine about home decoration, a magazine about fashion, beauty and lifestyle, a magazine about plus-size fashion and one about technology. Zalando has magazines about the industry, about Zalando Lounge and about fashion.

Another interesting find from this study is that it seems that most corporate magazines didn’t see the light online until 2014.

Most magazines target the customers

The study also found that 32 of 37 magazines target the online shop’s customers. Four magazines address press releases and news rooms, while one magazine (Amazon’s) appeals to its own employees. The company magazines examined are mostly dominated by guides and inspiring contributions. Another 16 percent of the magazines provide news about the company, while 14 percent covers news about the industry.

Most of the magazines publish content several times a week, with 16 percent that post something once a day or several times a day.