Mobile App for Cash & Carry Hypermarkets

service Product Development
customer Major group of food companies
service 2020 – ongoing

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Case

A regular customer of Loovatech decided to enter the market of Cash & Carry hypermarkets. Cash & Carry is a wholesale type of trade based on membership, designed for both resellers and commercial customers such as cafes, restaurants and small shops.

It was decided to develop a pilot project in the form of a mobile app for the new retail chain, to be launched alongside the first hypermarket in region.

The customer prioritized creation of convenient, beautiful-looking, modern solutions for end users around its own retail business brands.

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Customer

Major group of companies, manufacturer of food products of various types. The group controls several dozen domestic food brands. Customer's enterprises manufacture hundreds of products, sold in all major food retail chains in region.

A significant place in the group's structure is occupied by its own retail business. The company operates several retail chains under different brands, of convenience store, supermarket and hypermarket formats.

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business goals

01 Solve the problem of identifying company representatives in the store
02 Provide the best customer experiencefor the buyer
03 Make the brand distinguishable from competitors
04 Protect customer data and eliminate any risk of system abuse
05 Make it so that as many customers as possible switch to electronic document flow
06 Lay the foundation for a loyalty program

our approach

After consultations with the customer and completion of pre-project analysis, Loovatech team proposed a solution in the form of a cross-platform mobile app.

Technologies and framework were chosen to enable cross-platform development within single code base. This allowed the customer to roll out same versions of the app for Android and iOS quickly and with less effort.

Loovatech team delved into the customer's activities and thoroughly studied retailer's IT infrastructure. Our developers designed an API to enable mobile app interaction with accounting & ERP systems. This allowed for setting up correct, fast cooperation of existing business systems with the mobile app.

With help from the customer's IT department, Loovatech developers fully integrated the mobile app into the holding's infrastructure. In particular, tight integration with the retailer's main ERP system was done.

A special gateway in the customer's accounting system helped set up a full-fledged integration of the mobile app with EDF systems and providers of legally relevant electronic document flow.

The production took about 6 months and concluded before the opening of the hypermarket chain.

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how does it work?

The customer's hypermarkets are positioned as stores for stores. Despite the declared priority for legal entities, any individual can become the retailer's client. To pay for goods, customers need to present a special QR code at the checkout, generated in the mobile app. When generating the code, the system checks if the card is active.

The entire history of purchases for each card can be reviewed. EDF can be activated directly in the app. All popular providers are supported.

After paying for the goods at checkout, all relevant documents are generated automatically. One doesn't need to sign anything or exchange paper.

Several legal entities can use one account. Companies and managers carrying out purchases for their clients can add several legal entities.

Each legal entity may have several representatives allowed to make purchases. The representative can invite other employees or block their access to making purchases in the store.

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result

The pilot version of the mobile app was first released for public testing for another retail chain of the holding. Under a different brand, all the customer's hypotheses were tested, and the operation speed of the IT solution on the customer's infrastructure was assessed.

The pilot version released for public use met all the requirements, even exceeding the expectations of the retailer's management team.

An asymmetric encryption algorithm was used to protect user data. It secured the confidential data of legal entities and their employees, clients of the retail chain. For example, should a QR code be stolen, attackers will not get access to information about buyers or their mobile devices.

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future

The success of the app's pilot version in another retail chain allowed the project to spread to other structures in the customer's holding. The release version of the mobile app was rolled out simultaneously with the launch of a new chain of regional Cash & Carry hypermarkets.

The mobile app proved to be working well in hypermarkets. The solution's effectiveness satisfied the holding's leaders. Consultations are underway with the integrator Loovatech on further development of the product and scaling this solution to other areas of the group's retail business.

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To pay for goods, customers need to present a special QR code at the checkout, generated in the mobile app. When generating the code, the system checks if the card is active.

The entire history of purchases for each card can be reviewed. EDF can be activated directly in the app. All popular providers are supported.

After paying for the goods at checkout, all relevant documents are generated automatically. One doesn`t need to sign anything or exchange paper.

business result

Company representatives can now be identified through a mobile application instead of a plastic card
The application was implemented in a short time for the launch of the first chain store
The application now supports full cycle of remote interaction with the customer, from registration to receipt of documents
The buyer identification algorithm at the checkout was built on the basis of banking standards
The process of connecting a store client to EDF was made possible in 4 clicks