Valuable lessons learned from the development and use of technologies in retail

by Julia Pott

Progress is inconceivable without the occasional misstep. This makes it all the more important to have an open exchange about the paths and detours in the pursuit of success. The EHI Technology Days in Bonn on November 5 and 6, 2024 once again offered such a communication platform for the retail industry, with leading retail companies and innovators sharing their experiences with the development of technologies and passing on valuable tips.

We have summarized four of these numerous insights from Fressnapf, Edeka Jäger, Colruyt and MediaMarktSaturn.

A comprehensive omnichannel ecosystem that includes eCommerce, digital services, mobile advice from employees, mobile POS, CRM, social media and content management – this dream probably unites many retailers. Randy John, Vice President Product Development Digital Store Solution at Fressnapf, outlined this ambitious goal and the measures the pet supplies and food retailer has taken to achieve it. However, John also admitted that there have been setbacks, such as the insolvency of POS system provider Enfore. Experience has also shown that it is necessary to focus on certain areas and that it is not possible to implement everything at the same time.

Lessons learned: Randy John emphasized that it helped a lot to combine technological and business units: all project managers have a dual management team from the IT and business areas in order to bring together technological and economic issues. The company also relies on joint coordination with regard to strategic matters and the recruitment of important positions.

John assured that Fressnapf remains optimistic and continues to look for a comprehensive solution that seamlessly integrates all aspects of its business. He was convinced that it was important to take risks and continuously learn from them in order to stand out from the competition.

The impetus for Edeka Jäger's staff-free 24/7 store at Stuttgart Airport came from the observation that passers-by were standing in front of the store after closing time, eager to buy something. This raised the question for owner Florian Jäger: “How can we serve customers around the clock?” The solution: a 24/7 store concept from Wanzl. With a total investment of around €300,000 and monthly costs of €3,000, the project paid for itself in just over two years, according to Jäger, with the existing airport infrastructure helping out. Jäger is not only pleased about the good functionality of the smart store and its economic success. He also emphasized: “We have learned a lot from the entire development process, which is not only important for night operations without staff, but also helps us for all stores during the day.”

Lessons learned: The user experience of the self-service checkouts was designed to be as simple and clear as possible to ensure a smooth process at night, even without staff intervention: customers scan their products, confirm their shopping cart with a click and pay by card. There are no further queries or loyalty notices. This increased efficiency and led to a 38% share of sales at the self-service checkouts, even during daytime operations. This gives employees more time for other tasks during the day. If a fault does occur, employees can resolve it via tablet or smartphone from the opposite checkout. The positioning of the fruit and vegetable scales with product recognition in the fresh produce department instead of in the self-service checkout area also means that problems with weighing do not hold up self-checkout operations at night or during the day.

In the future, customers will want to decide whether they want to be served at the checkout in the store or whether they want to use self-checkout options. It is therefore important to offer both solutions. This is the conviction of the Colruyt Group, explained Geert Elen, Head of New Commercial Development. The Colruyt Group is therefore developing several checkout solutions in its in-house test laboratory for new technologies – in a process-oriented manner.

One of these solutions is computer vision-supported attended checkouts, said Elen. Colruyt's experience: a system based entirely on product recognition does not yet guarantee correct shopping basket registration, while at the same time the barcodes are reaching the end of their service life. Colruyt therefore opted for an interim solution: a computer vision system with cameras mounted above the checkout that recognizes barcodes. This has made the checkout process at the till 10% faster and the system is now being rolled out after a one-year pilot phase.

Lessons learned: According to Geert Elen, the challenge, but also an advantage in the innovation process, is that you have to operate and change the business at the same time. So you try to improve work processes a little every day. And Elen gave another tip: when it comes to the future, entrepreneurs invest too much in thinking and too little in doing. His motto: “Dream big, but start small.” You can envision the far future, but you should start quickly and concretely with small changes.

Henny Steiniger, VP Services & Solutions, and Stephan Lange, Managing Director, spoke at the EHI Technology Days about how MediaMarktSaturn has introduced generative AI into its corporate processes. Numerous employees from all possible areas of the company are to be supported in their daily work by AI applications. Instead of purchasing individual solutions, the decision was quickly made to build up its own AI framework and thus its own expertise as the MediaMarktSaturn Group. MediaMarktSaturn therefore designed a platform with a standard architecture on the basis of which new AI models can be developed for new use cases. Application areas include speech recognition and chatbots, digital consulting assistants, image generation, SEO tools, code generation and many more.

Lessons learned: When introducing new tools, it is important to overcome the skepticism and shyness of some employees, explained Steiniger, and to get everyone on board with the development, regardless of their level of technological expertise. To this end, a knowledge library has been developed and made available that provides low-threshold information, from the absolute basics of AI to expert content.

Voluntary tech training for employees is also offered across all entry levels, from beginner to expert courses. Steiniger emphasized: “The door is always wide open, employees can join in at any time and ask questions, regardless of their level of knowledge.” In practice, the self-developed AI applications can then be tested in a secure internal environment. In order to motivate not only the curious but also the hesitant, Steiniger advised intensive internal communication on the topic of AI: “In this case, you can't talk too much about it.”