Customer StrategyProf. Dr. Christian Schulze
Christian Schulze speaking in a lecture hall at Frankfurt School

Better executives build better customer strategies.

I help top executives in customer-facing roles develop the strategic thinking they need to drive sustainable growth. Through coaching, advisory, and research-backed frameworks.

Prof. Dr. Christian Schulze · Frankfurt School of Finance & Management

The 100-Day ProgramAbout me →

Answers within two working daysEnglish and GermanIn person or online
Trusted by
VodafoneDeutsche Börse GroupAlmaraiZDFBoeings.OliverElmVolksbanken RaiffeisenbankenPanasonicCompuGroup MedicalRaisinFrankfurt School of Finance & Management

Working with me

Three ways to work with me

01

The 100-Day Program

Personalized coaching and advisory for executives who want to get customer strategy right. Weekly 1-on-1 sessions designed around your specific situation.

How the program works 02

Company programs

Customized executive education for leadership teams, from a one-day workshop to a multi-module program, in Germany, Europe and the Middle East.

How company programs work 03

Keynotes and talks

Talks at conferences and company events on customer strategy, AI in commerce and digital marketing: what the evidence says beyond the hype.

Topics and formats
Christian Schulze in a one-on-one coaching conversation

What others say

Christian combines deep strategic marketing expertise with clear, actionable guidance. He has a rare ability to quickly identify the real challenge behind a marketing question and translate it into practical, relevant advice.

Kevin KepplerHomeServe Deutschland

Despite my 19 years in multichannel marketing, Christian's structured approach gave my hands-on style the strategic framework it needed. Together, we developed a strategy for all customer-related activities in my company. His coaching provided me with a methodology I now apply daily.

Shirin Kamiar-GilaniThing Technologies

Christian combines rigorous marketing research with exceptional practical relevance. He has a way of structuring complex marketing questions precisely and of thinking consistently from the customer's perspective. His view of customer strategy has had a lasting influence on how I look at data-driven marketing.

Dr. Alena GlanzAccenture

Christian connects cutting-edge research with real-world relevance: you don't just learn the theory, you see how it works in practice.

Ulrich WiebachRoland Berger

How the 100-Day Program works

Featured in the media more than 500× since 2012

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Bloomberg ARD Deutschlandfunk Search Engine Land The Economist ZDF Handelsblatt eMarketer Harvard Business Review Tagesschau hr info Modern Retail MIT Sloan Management Review ntv Börsen-Zeitung WDR WARC Deutsche Welle SAT.1 Markenartikel CGTN Digiday SWR Tagesthemen

Always closely connected to practice

The stories behind difficult customer strategy decisions, told by the people who made them.

I bring founders, CEOs and CMOs on stage at Frankfurt School and to the ProfCast microphone: the decisions they made, what went wrong, and what they would do again. In conversation with me, in front of students, alumni and executives.

Dr. Jesko Perrey in the Customer Strategy DialogueDr. Jesko PerreySenior Partner and global board member, McKinsey & Company Isabel Bonacker in the Customer Strategy DialogueIsabel BonackerCo-owner, Babor Beauty Group Benjamin Michel in the Customer Strategy DialogueBenjamin MichelCo-founder and CEO, Finanzguru Dr. Sarah Müller in the Customer Strategy DialogueDr. Sarah MüllerCCO and Managing Director, Zolar · former CEO, kununu Claus-Dietrich Lahrs in the Customer Strategy DialogueClaus-Dietrich LahrsFormer CEO, Hugo Boss and Bottega Veneta
Customer Strategy ProfCast with Prof. Christian Schulze

Podcast

Customer Strategy ProfCast

Great customer strategy is what sets successful companies apart from the rest. In the Customer Strategy ProfCast, founders, CEOs and CMOs bring the real-world stories: the decisions they actually made, the ones they got wrong, and the ideas they believe have helped them build lasting competitive advantage. I bring the science-backed frameworks that turn those stories into insights you can apply to your own work.

Episode #1The Business of Luxury: Former Hugo Boss CEO Claus-Dietrich Lahrs

Listen on SpotifyApple Podcasts ↗

Science, not opinions

The frameworks I use have been tested on data

I study how companies win, keep and value customers, and how AI changes the way people find and buy online. My latest research measures what ChatGPT means for the websites of thousands of companies.

Key findingsNo. 002 · 2 / 2

  1. After the introduction of ads, organic ChatGPT referrals fell by about 6 to 8%.
  2. Visitors who still arrived converted as before.
  3. Paid ChatGPT visits generated less value for advertisers than paid search.
  4. Actual prices are more than six times the parity price compared to Google Search.

Details on ecommerceresearch.org →

ecommerceresearch.org/chatgpt-ads

Working paper · v1 · Oct 2026No. 002 · 1 / 2

Can Advertising Fund Free AI?

Evidence from ChatGPT's International Advertising Rollout

Paid ChatGPT versus established channels on conversion, order value, revenue per session and engagement

1,898
websites
$16B
annual revenue
60 weeks
Jun 2025 – Aug 2026

Read the study

Key findingsNo. 001 · 2 / 2

  1. Conversion is low: below every traditional channel except paid social.
  2. But it is improving: conversion rose over the year while other channels stayed flat.
  3. Order values are the lowest of all channels, and they fell over the year.
  4. Organic LLM already out-converts five of eight channels for complex products.

Details on ecommerceresearch.org →

ecommerceresearch.org/organic-llm

Marketing Science · 45(4) · 699–715No. 001 · 1 / 2

ChatGPT Referrals to E-Commerce Websites

How Do LLMs Compare Against Traditional Channels?

Conversion rate by channel relative to organic LLM traffic: organic LLM converts above paid social and below all other channels

973
websites
$20B
annual revenue
12 months
Aug 2024 – Jul 2025

Read the study

2026International Journal of Research in Marketing Customer Return Rate Evolution How customers' product return rates develop over their relationship with a retailer. with Siham El Kihal, Tülin Erdem and Weiqing Zhang 2022Management and Business Review The Road to Failure is Paved with Good Discounts: How Premature Discounts Hurt Entrepreneurs on Kickstarter Why early discounts on crowdfunding platforms cost founders more than they gain. with Daniel Blaseg 2021Journal of Retailing A Comparison of Return Rate Calculation Methods: Evidence from 16 Retailers How the way a retailer calculates its return rate changes the number, shown with data from 16 retailers. with Siham El Kihal, Namig Nurullayev and Bernd Skiera 2020Marketing Science Referral Reward Size and New Customer Profitability How the size of a referral reward affects the profitability of the customers it brings in. with Heike M. Wolters and Karen Gedenk 2020Marketing Science Consumer Protection on Kickstarter What protects backers on crowdfunding platforms, and what happens when projects fail to deliver. with Daniel Blaseg and Bernd Skiera 2015MIT Sloan Management Review Customizing Social Media Marketing Why social media marketing has to be tailored to the product, in a piece for managers. with Lisa Schöler and Bernd Skiera 2014Journal of Marketing Not All Fun and Games: Viral Marketing for Utilitarian Products Why viral marketing works for some products and backfires for others. with Lisa Schöler and Bernd Skiera 2014Journal of Business Research New Product Adoption in Social Networks: Why Direction Matters How the direction of relationships in a social network shapes the adoption of new products. with Oliver Hinz and Carsten Takac 2012Journal of Marketing Linking Customer and Financial Metrics to Shareholder Value: The Leverage Effect in Customer-Based Valuation How changes in customer metrics such as retention translate into shareholder value. with Bernd Skiera and Thorsten Wiesel

The ChatGPT studies on ecommerceresearch.org ↗All publications on Google Scholar ↗