About Der Versandhausberater

Der Versandhausberater

Der Versandhausberater is a German trade publication for mail-order, online and cross-channel retail, published from Hamburg. Founded in 1961 by Alfred Gerardi, it describes itself as the weekly executive briefing ("Chef-Brief") for the mail-order, online and cross-channel trade, its service providers and suppliers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. It appears daily online and weekly in digital and print form, carrying the ISSN 0049-5999. Its editorial programme combines current industry news with consulting content: trend analyses, checklists, company rankings, how-to guides, reviews of mail-order catalogues, market figures, court rulings and news from marketing, IT, logistics, customer service and e-commerce. Since 2001 it has awarded an annual jury prize for the best printed mail-order catalogues in Germany, and its "Online-Shop des Jahres" award has been described in the industry as the "Oscar" of online and mail-order retail.

Overview

Der Versandhausberater serves one of the most dynamic sectors of the German economy: distance selling, which grew from the classic catalogue mail-order houses of the post-war era into today's e-commerce and cross-channel retail landscape. Its readers are executives, managers and specialists at mail-order companies, online retailers, multichannel retailers, and the service providers and suppliers that work for them, including logistics companies, IT and shop-system providers, payment service providers, marketing agencies and print houses. The publication's self-description as a "Chef-Brief" signals its positioning: concise, decision-relevant information for people who run the business, rather than long-form journalism.

The publication rhythm reflects the speed of the industry. News is published daily on the website, while the weekly edition appears in digital and print form, bundling the week's most important developments with background and analysis. The editorial promise, as stated in the publisher's anniversary material, is to inform about current events, provide valuable consulting, identify forward-looking trends and open a view behind the scenes of the entire industry.

A distinctive feature of the title is its service and benchmarking content. The editorial team analyses trends and new business models in interactive cross-channel and mail-order retail, publishes checklists and company rankings, and provides instructions for practitioners. It reviews new mail-order catalogues and derived advertising materials, a tradition that dates back to the catalogue era and continues in the age of online shops. Market figures, current court rulings and product news from the fields of marketing, IT, logistics, customer service and e-commerce round out the offering, making the publication a working tool for retail managers.

History

The first issue of Der Versandhausberater appeared in 1961, founded by Alfred Gerardi. At the time, the German mail-order industry was dominated by the great catalogue houses, Quelle, Neckermann and Otto, whose thick catalogues were the "consumer bibles" of the economic miracle years. The new publication positioned itself as the industry's own information service, reporting on the business of distance selling at a time when the sector was still defining itself.

Over the following decades, the title chronicled the transformation of its industry: the rise of specialty mail-order companies, the advent of teleshopping, the arrival of the internet and e-commerce in the 1990s, and the convergence of mail-order and bricks-and-mortar retail into cross-channel and omnichannel models. The publication adapted its own concept along the way, expanding from a classic mail-order briefing into a cross-media service for the entire interactive retail sector, with daily online news complementing the weekly edition.

In 2018, the HighText Verlag of publisher Joachim Graf took over Der Versandhausberater, bringing it into a publishing house specialised in e-commerce and digital business media. The title celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2021, an occasion the publisher marked with a special publication tracing "100 years of mail-order retail" and the title's own six decades. The anniversary material noted how the distinction between mail-order and high-street retail had become largely theoretical sixty years after Gerardi's first issue, with the industry now defined by the interplay of online and offline channels.

Coverage and Content

The editorial content is organised around the practical needs of distance-selling professionals. News coverage follows the daily business of the industry: company results and strategy changes, mergers and acquisitions, new market entrants, executive appointments and regulatory developments affecting retail, from consumer protection law to packaging and data protection rules. The consulting dimension is equally important: trend analyses identify where the industry is heading, from artificial intelligence in customer service to same-day delivery and social commerce, while checklists and how-to guides give readers actionable frameworks.

Company rankings are a popular format, benchmarking online shops and mail-order companies on criteria such as usability, assortment design, direct marketing and business performance. The catalogue reviews continue a tradition that goes back to the title's founding: new mail-order catalogues are discussed as marketing instruments, evaluating concept, design, assortment presentation and production quality. Market figures provide the quantitative context, and the reporting on court rulings keeps readers informed about the legal framework of distance selling, a field where case law on withdrawal rights, pricing and advertising directly affects daily operations.

The awards are a central pillar of the brand's industry role. Since 2001, the editorial team has awarded an annual jury prize for the best printed mail-order catalogues in Germany, in cooperation with the industry association BEVH, documenting the state of catalogue production with complete, main and partial catalogues eligible for submission. The "Online-Shop des Jahres" (Online Shop of the Year) award, presented at the German mail-order congress, honours online shops judged particularly successful and innovative by an expert jury on criteria including usability, assortment and business metrics, with the specialist audience also participating in a preliminary vote. Winners have included shops such as tennis-point.de, and the award's reputation as the industry's "Oscar" underlines the title's authority in its sector.

Organization and Ownership

Der Versandhausberater is published by HighText Verlag, the publishing house of Joachim Graf, which took over the title in 2018. The publisher is based in Hamburg and specialises in media for e-commerce and the digital economy. The editorial office produces the daily online news, the weekly digital and print editions and the special publications, working with the industry association BEVH on the catalogue award and with expert juries on the online shop award.

The names of the current editor-in-chief and editorial staff are not confirmed in publicly accessible sources, so no personal editorial attribution is made here. What is publicly documented is the institutional structure: a specialist B2B publisher with a dedicated editorial team serving the distance-selling industry across Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

The business model is the classic one for B2B specialist media: paid subscriptions to the weekly briefing in digital and print form, premium online access, advertising from service providers and suppliers to the retail industry, and cross-media licences and multiple subscriptions for corporate customers. The awards generate additional visibility and industry engagement, reinforcing the brand's position at the centre of its community.

Digital Presence

The website versandhausberater.de is the daily news hub of the brand, publishing current industry news every day and serving as the subscription and premium-access portal. The weekly edition is available in digital form alongside the print version, and the site archives past content for subscribers. The digital offering is completed by newsletters that deliver the most important news to readers' inboxes.

The brand's digital presence is thoroughly B2B and service-oriented: rather than chasing mass reach on social platforms, it focuses on delivering decision-relevant information quickly and reliably to its professional audience. The awards are presented and documented online, with shortlists and winners announced on the website, extending the print tradition into the digital space. For an industry that lives online, the publication's own digital operation, daily news, digital weekly edition, premium subscriptions and online award presentations, mirrors the cross-channel reality it reports on.