Over the next five years approximately 400 million Marks (US$ 194 million) will be invested in the Internet side of the business. Only recently Karstadt decided to stop its own Internet brand "myworld", and now the emphasis of its online presence will be on the tried and tested company brands.

All e-business activities will be collated under the leadership of the newly founded "KarstadtQuelle New Media AG". The vertical portal karstadtsport.de is to go online in the fall, just in time for the pre-Christmas market. Urban sees an attractive growth potential across the whole e-commerce sector. "Whoever has access to the necessary assets, and above all the established customer relationships, has the best start position in this quickly growing market," the member of the board explained.

On this basis, KarstadtQuelle wants to generate approximately 700 million Marks (US$ 340 million) in the e-commerce sector by the end of the year, constituting more than a triple increase in turnover from the 214 million Marks (US$ 104 million) figure for the year 1999: an increase of 37 percent.

Business models which connect all communication channels together can be especially successful, believes the KarstadtQuelle AG, since the customer can be reached and served in many different ways.