Wholesale giant Metro has announced that it has won two prizes at the twelfth edition of EHI Retail Institute's Retail Technology Awards Europe in Düsseldorf in Germany.
The app, Metro Companion, received the 'best customer experience' award, while its blockchain-based data storage solution was declared the 'best enterprise solution.'
Customer Experience
The Metro Companion app allows customers to access price information about products by scanning a bar-code.
They can also view the total value of their shopping basket at any point in time while using the app.
“With this app, we can communicate with and assist our customers on an even more personal level and offer them a better basis for making their purchase decisions,” said Jörg Decker of Metro-NOM, Metro AG's IT division.
“In other words, they benefit from a richer and more attractive shopping experience and an improved customer service.”
Customers can scan several barcodes at a time and also gather more information about the products through the app's augmented reality functions.
EHI's 'best customer experience' award is given to retailers who employ trendsetting methods and technologies to boost customer loyalty and customer satisfaction.
Blockchain-Based Data Storage
Metro has developed a blockchain-based data storage solution that replaces conventional archive storage.
Developed in association with the Hamburg-based company, Deepshore, the method allows raw data from different systems to be stored and protected against manipulation.
It is completely infrastructure-independent and cloud-ready, and Metro expects to cut up to 50% of storage costs with the help of this system in the future.
“In addition to the cost savings, this solution also allows us to evaluate stored data in full depth over the entire storage period.
"This also offers our customers many advantages in everyday life, such as the ability to immediately find the right invoices for a specific item without having to look through all the invoices,” said Metronom's Daniel Köhnen.
The best enterprise solution award recognises retail corporations that develop and implement innovative systems and technologies to enhance efficiency.
© 2019 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Dayeeta Das. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
