City of Lüneburg launches online marketplace

Another city in Europe has decided to launch its own online marketplace. This time it’s the city of Lüneberg, a town in the German state of Lower Saxony, that started the ecommerce initiative. Customers can browse through the offer of local retailers and get the goods delivered to their homes for free.

Local newspaper Landeszeitung, delivery service Lünebote and Marktplatz GmbH have launched the online project, in cooperation with local retailers. Starting next month, interested consumers can order products online from Shop-Lueneburg.de and have them delivered within a day, with no additional costs.

Shop is complementary to physical stores

According to the initiators, the online shop is complementary to the existing physical stores in the German city. These retailers are already quite familiar with showcasing their stores online, as they use an app to offer information and news in a virtual shop window through the website of Kaufhaus Lüneburg.

Now, customers from this Germany city can order products from these retailers also online, through the website or by using a mobile app. Employees of delivery service Lüneboten will then collect the goods in the different stores and deliver them in Lüneburg and the surrounding area. Retailers who want to participate, pay an entree fee of 999 euros.

Other local online marketplaces in Germany

The city of Lüneberg isn’t the only city in Germany that has its own online marketplace. In 2015, Monchengladbach started a pilot project on eBay, while AllyouneedCity, an online shopping platform for local retailers, launched in Bonn in 2017.