In France, Casino Groupe is watched because of market manipulation made from raiders. However it seems they have some ressources to resist and continue to innovate in order to exit this situation.
Committed to a process of technological innovation and continuous experimentation, the Group lead by Jean Charles Naouri is pursuing the digitalization of its physical stores with a clear objective: to simplify shopping, personalize customer relations and give teams a key role.D In the aisles of Casino supermarkets, at the Vival checkout, at the Monoprix beauty drugstore, but also in the Extra, Pão de Açúcar or Carulla stores, more and more customers are shopping by hand. With more than 12 million downloads, the mobile applications of the Group’s brands are at the heart of its digital transformation.
AN ECOSYSTEM OF MOBILE APPLICATIONS
“Today, being close to the customer is the strategic challenge for supermarkets,” observes Clément Contamine, CEO of Maxit. This is why the Group has decided to settle “in its pocket”, by creating mobile applications that change the way it does its shopping in stores and personalize the relationship. The Casino Max app alone already registers more than 2.5 million hits each month. »
Thanks to the digital devices installed in stores, the brand’s applications offer very advanced functionalities that free up constraints: self scanning of products, cash or deferred payment without going to the checkout, dematerialized loyalty card, etc. The Group also relies on this ecosystem of applications to establish permanent contact with its customers, offer them discount coupons and targeted offers, personalized shopping lists, and even advantages with major partner brands. An evolution that allows retailers to eliminate paper flyers: Monoprix, which has taken the lead, saves 2,400 tons of paper and 10 to 15% of its marketing costs.
RECONCILE PHYSICAL AND DIGITAL COMMERCE
Extending the relationship with the customer also means developing food ecommerce. Order your groceries on the Franprix app and have them delivered in 30 to 40 minutes, choose a recipe on Monoprix and me and receive the ingredients at home, or on the other hand pick up your Monoprix.fr order at the next store at the scheduled time: the brands are gradually erasing the boundaries between physical and digital commerce.
They can therefore be adapted to all uses by inventing hybrid models. This is the case for the 50 Cdiscount stores and their digital devices, located at Géant Casino, which generate an average 25% increase in sales in the technical, household appliance and furniture departments. Another example of hybridization is Le 4 Casino, a real laboratory for plant innovation, open 24 hours a day. “In this space designed above all as a living space, technology is discreet but very present,” says Cyril Bourgois, Director of Strategy, Digital Transformation and Innovation at the Group. And always useful: it aims to improve and enrich the consumer experience. »
THE HUMAN BEING, THE MASTER ASSET OF PHYSICAL COMMERCE
Digitized, the “increased” store is nevertheless resolutely human. Employees play an essential role: less solicited in execution and collection tasks, they reinvest higher value-added functions and are available to advise and support clients on a daily basis. In the service departments, where employees work on the product and give it pride of place, in the Franprix restaurant area, at the reception desk of Monoprix, which has become an urban service hub, in Géant Casino’s Cdiscount boutiques… they remain the store’s master asset.
