dm - like many retail companies - is facing a multitude of challenges: In city centers, customer frequency is falling and competition is increasing. Consumer trends are developing ever faster, while dm's logistics capacities are scarcer due to previous strong growth. In a strategic network analysis and planning process, the decision was initially made in favor of a further - and thus twelfth - dm distribution location in Germany to cope with the continuing growth in volume. At the same time, the logistics experts also developed an innovative logistics infrastructure. At its heart are digital branch twins for each individual store. To this end, all of the more than 2,000 dm stores have been digitized with their respective shelf architecture and individual article placements. The digital twin forms the basis for intelligently combining the articles on the incoming goods pallets - and thus making store logistics much easier when putting the products in the shelves. As a result, the now highly automated upstream logistics system saves several million euros a year in logistics costs.