According to a survey commissioned by the digital association Bitkom, over 50 percent of smartphone owners in Germany now have at least one food retailer app installed on their phones. As such, their added value goes far beyond simply announcing promotions. Shopping list management, price comparisons and individual discounts are further useful advantages for app users. Another possibility: unlocking shopping trolleys – provided the retailer uses the new HybridLoc digital deposit lock from retail specialist Wanzl
Integrating the process of unlocking the shopping trolley functionally into the customer journey just makes good sense. After all, the shopping trolley is the first direct contact that the vast majority of buyers have with a store and is then their most important companion through the store. “The trolley is unlocked via an app and NFC (Near Field Communication). We have deliberately designed our system as an open building block in order to be able to use it in third-party apps, such as those from retailers or bonus programme providers such as Payback and DeutschlandCard. This significantly enhances our partners’ apps as they can offer their customers another important service digitally,” explains Raphael Ulrich, Product Manager Digital & Electronic Solutions at Wanzl. Even before they actually enter the store, retailers can reach their customer with tailor-made offers and bonus campaigns via digital advertising.
Retailers also receive important information for their shopping trolley management and about the shopping behaviour of their customers. Every single shopping trolley can be tracked precisely. Where in the store is it currently? How often was it used? How many trolleys are in use at what time? Recommendations for and the number of shopping trolleys actually required can be derived from the data collected. In addition, walking distances and the amount of time customers spend in the respective sections in the entire store can be tracked. Conclusions can therefore be drawn about the optimisation of the product range, marketing campaigns or the general design of the sales area in the medium term. It is also possible to react to increased customer traffic at normal peak times as well as on an ad-hoc basis, which leads to optimised staff deployment and the avoidance of long queues at checkouts.
Raphael Ulrich highlights another practical feature of HybridLoc: “While digitalisation is advancing with great strides in the retail trade, many still prefer conventional shopping or only use certain smart functions. In order to satisfy everyone with one single product when it comes to shopping trolleys, HybridLoc has both a traditional coin deposit lock as well as a digital one.”
The cloud-based software platform wanzl connect® acts as the overarching control centre for the digital features: store management, inventory monitoring, analytics and recommendations can be fully controlled via the platform. For this purpose, all the data collected in the store converges at wanzl connect® and can be displayed, analysed and evaluated via a smart device – including data from the digital deposit locks. wanzl connect® is openly programmed so that digital products from other providers can also be integrated.
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