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Company

Outletcity Metzingen

Description

Outletcity Metzingen (operated by OUTLETCITY AG) is Europe's largest outlet and is widely recognized as a pioneer in successfully integrating retail, tourism, and digital omnichannel commerce.

Every year, the "City of Fashion" attracts around 4.5 million visitors from over 185 countries. With more than 170 premium and luxury brands across its entire ecosystem—including around 133 local stores and an online shop featuring over 400 brands—Outletcity offers a unique shopping experience.

Founded in 1997 by Uwe and Jochen Holy, grandsons of fashion designer Hugo Ferdinand Boss, Outletcity has evolved from a traditional factory outlet into an international shopping destination. In addition to its retail offerings, the infrastructure includes a Welcome Center, various dining options, and the adjacent Moxy Hotel.

A key success factor is the consistent omnichannel strategy: the app, online shop, and physical stores are seamlessly connected. The goal is to support customers across all channels, gain a deeper understanding of their needs, and build long-term loyalty.

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Challenges

Millions of visitors, but no shared data foundation

As a multi-brand destination with independent stores and an international clientele, Outletcity faced several structural challenges:

• Valuable purchase data remained largely invisible within the independent stores.
• High proportion of destination shoppers and tourists.
• Customer interactions were spread across numerous touchpoints with no centralized view of the customer.
• Personalization and campaign management were only possible to a limited extent.
• Divergent brand interests and a highly heterogeneous customer base further increased complexity.

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Goals

Customer loyalty as a strategic priority

• Building a centralized, data-driven view of the customer
• Increasing frequency, basket size, and customer lifetime value
• Developing a scalable loyalty program for all brands
• Reducing dependence on the POS through digital mechanics
• Strengthening the omnichannel experience across stores, online shops, and the app
• Increasing customer retention and repeat visit rates

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Solution

A loyalty ecosystem for the entire destination

The Outletcity Club is much more than a classic loyalty program. It serves as a strategic customer asset that enables customer identification, customer insights, omnichannel attribution, and direct, cross-channel customer engagement.

Key components

• App-based Outletcity Club
• Receipt scanning to capture offline purchases
• Status level system with exclusive benefits
• Personalized coupons and campaign management
• Seamless omnichannel integration
• Granular target group segmentation

Key components of the IT landscape:

• SAP Commerce
• Emarsys
• Receipt Scan

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Results & Impact

Measurable impact at every level

Business Impact

• Significantly higher annual revenue from club customers
• Club members visit Outletcity more frequently and shop much more regularly.
• The club encourages omnichannel shopping and strengthens loyalty to the entire destination.

Data & Customer Insights

• Previously invisible offline purchases can now be analyzed based on data for the first time.
• Significantly better insights into: brand preferences, length of stay, purchasing behavior, usage patterns
• High-value customers can be identified across brands and targeted for activation for the first time.

Activity & Engagement

• High activation rates despite an international visitor and tourist demographic
• Particularly high activity in the top tier (Gold status)

Marketing & Campaign Management

• Precise target group selection based on behavior, interests, and customer status
• Flexible management of frequency and demand
• Successful campaign formats: Club Weeks with exclusive benefits, omnichannel voucher mechanics, event-based customer activation, and target-group-specific coupon campaigns

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Loyalty as a central customer interface

From isolated interactions to a holistic customer view

The Outletcity Club has become a strategic cornerstone of customer relationships. Instead of isolated interactions in individual stores, a holistic view of the customer is now emerging across the app, online shop, and physical retail locations. Using receipt-scanning technology, purchasing behavior, brand preferences, and activity patterns are now visible across all channels for the first time. This allows Outletcity to engage guests with greater relevance, activate target groups more precisely, and continuously personalize the customer experience.

The Club is thus evolving from a loyalty program into a central growth, data, and marketing platform for Europe's largest outlet destination. New status levels, simplified mechanics, and the continuous development of the program ensure that the Club's relevance for different customer segments is steadily increasing.

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Conclusion: Outletcity Metzingen as a blueprint for data-driven loyalty

From knowledge gap to growth platform

Outletcity Metzingen impressively demonstrates the potential of data-driven loyalty—even in a highly complex multi-brand environment with international customers and independent brand partners.

Success is based on the interplay between the powerful Convercus loyalty core and jointly developed, outlet-specific capabilities, such as receipt scanning and self-redemption. These enable tenant-independent scaling across 133 independent stores.

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