Future Retail: Innovative Customer Journey

As the inventor of the drugstore in Germany, Dirk Roßmann opened the first "Markt für Drogeriewaren / Store for drugstore products" in Hanover in 1972. Today, ROSSMANN (headquartered in Burgwedel near Hanover, Germany) is one of Europe's largest drugstore chains with 60,500 employees in Europe and 4,514 stores.

With 23,000 drugstore articles, including 4,600 of its 28 private labels, ROSSMANN presents a particularly extensive range covering all areas of daily life. Since 1999, the diverse range has also been available online. Furthermore, ROSSMANN attaches great importance to the issue of sustainability. For example, the company is continuously working on making its products and packaging more sustainable. In addition, the ecological and social commitment is being further expanded in all areas of the company. Sales 2022: 12.15 billion euros (Germany 8.45 billion euros).

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#1 Register
First of all, you have to register on our platform. You can find a tutorial in the question "How to create an account on our platform and how to set it up?".

#2 Select the challenge 

The Future Finance Innovation Program consists of various challenges. Scroll up, look over the challenges and choose the one you are interested in, by clicking on ‘more information’. You will find the complete challenge briefing. Read it thoroughly.

#3 Select options of participation 

There are different options as to how you can participate in our challenges: You can create a new team for the challenge, join an existing team or participate alone (for further information: Look at the next question).

#4 Submit your idea 

Develop or apply your ideas and approaches and submit them via our platform's challenge workspace before the given deadline has passed. Keep in mind that you have to submit the submission template in order to participate in the challenge.

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Every participant will always be able to use his or her own submissions to the full extent. Concerning the planned joint publication of all solutions, the final teams will only grant us the necessary rights so that we can publish the solution under a Creative Common License (non-commercial). In addition, all final teams agree to enter into discussions with the respective Challenge submitter within three months of the programs completion regarding possible further use of the solution. During this period, the final teams also agree not to enter into discussions with third parties regarding further use of the solutions. All details can be found in the conditions of participation.

Both parties (challenge provider and finalists) are also entitled to jointly agree on deviating and individual provisions with regard to confidentiality agreements or IP rights during the elaboration phase.

We are aware that your solution concepts are in different stages of development, and that's fine!

For all of you who are currently developing a solution concept:

For submission purposes, it is sufficient to describe your idea or approach in the Submission Template and upload it via our platform. A visualization of the approach (e.g., a sketch, visual design, or prototype) is beneficial - it should be as well-developed as possible, but appropriate to the time available. Remember that there will be an elaboration phase for the finalists of this competition, where you will further develop your submitted idea/approach.

For startups:

Does your business idea fit our challenge? Excellent! Then join us, and let's take the next steps together. You only need to fill out the submission template. Additionally, you can upload further materials, e.g., a pitch deck.

Our challenges are open to all types of participants! Please just follow the registration process and decide whether you would like to participate alone, as a startup, or as a team.