Real-Life Concept" by go2market - Interview with Thomas Perdolt

With its "Real-Life Concept", start-up go2market offers completely new possibilities in market research. Thomas Perdolt from go2market explains in an interview why consumers and manufacturers alike benefit from this and the data obtained have a promising informative value.

Mr. Perdolt, you founded your start-up "go2market" two years ago. What is the concept behind it?

At go2market, everything revolves around REAL-LIFE market research. This means that real (offline/online) shoppers buy their products in a real (offline/online) purchase situation, use them in everyday life, test them and evaluate them voluntarily. We are thus very close to consumers and their real lives. At the same time, we enable manufacturers to see their products through the eyes of consumers.

Who can test go2market?

Membership in go2market is exclusive. This means that only a limited number of people can shop in our go2market at the same time: up to 3,000 in Cologne and up to 1,500 in Vienna per month. In go2market digital, there are up to 1,500 members in Germany and up to 750 members in Austria.

In order to test go2market, the interest person must first register free of charge on our website. Afterward the person lands on the waiting list for the purchase of one of our limited memberships. The paid memberships, both for the stationary store and for go2market digital, are allocated for the respective country based on socio-demographic characteristics. As soon as a free membership is available in our panel that matches the respective profile, the applicant receives an invitation and can purchase a free membership for three or six months.

Which products do you focus on?

We test products from various companies - from young startups to already well-known brands. And we do this along the entire life cycle - from completely new products that don't even exist on the market yet to products that are already on the market and need to be reviewed and revised if necessary: once or several times - depending on the manufacturer's questions.

In principle, we do not cover the entire product range of a supermarket, hypermarket or online supermarket, but nevertheless offer a broad assortment in which the respective test product must successfully assert itself.

Established products, new products and product alternatives from completely different product categories are to be found with us, so that the buyer has a large selection. Primarily food, but also, for example, detergents and cleaning agents. So everything from the area of consumer goods can be tested with us.

In addition to the test supermarkets in Vienna and Cologne, there is now also a digital edition of go2market. How does this differ from the on-site markets and what additional insights can you gain here?

The go2market digital is our online market research supermarket. We have thus transferred our go2market concept to the digital world and can thus provide important and innovative insights from e-commerce.

Just one example of how important digital is: when consumers hold a product in their hands for the first time, they have already bought it for a long time. So the question arises, which factors are decisive for buying a product online, or which factors speak against buying a product? Thinking further: Is it the text, the color, the shape, the price? Only when such framework conditions are fixed can the real sale in an online store get underway. And it is precisely with these and other insights that we want to help our industry partners.

Besides our go2market digital, there is also our go2market online store, which was recently launched in Austria and Germany. A real online store for everyone, where products are listed that have undergone a product test with us in advance and have achieved above-average ratings from consumers. As a result, we can now guarantee every manufacturer a listing.Accordingly, we now have three pillars: our stationary go2market store, our online market research supermarket go2market digital and our real sales channel, the go2market online store.

Do you notice any differences between consumers in Austria and Vienna?

Definitely! This is also one of the great added values for our industry partners. If they want to expand to Germany, for example, they can get to know German consumers better in advance by doing a go2market product test.

Especially our industry partners, whose headquarters are not in Germany or Austria, are often surprised how different the country-specific insights of the two countries are.

Last but not least: What advantages does go2market offer from a manufacturer and consumer perspective?

On the one hand, we give consumers the opportunity to test products and help shape the market with their feedback. Manufacturers, on the other hand, get valuable feedback from our market research to optimize their new or existing products and adapt them to the respective target groups. This in turn increases the chance that the products will be or remain successful on the market or in retail, thus avoiding product flops and wasted resources: thus a win-win-win situation - for consumers, manufacturers, and retailers.