Digitising almost 300 stores in less than a week

Trust is the key for delivering experiences in a high tempo, especially when you’re forced to rethink it all. It let Visma Digital Commerce digitise nearly 300 stores, with an updated, modern Click & Collect solution. This retailer Europris could celebrate with no layoffs of employees or leftover Easter products, in addition to an increase of 348 % for their Click & Collect.

What Easter mean to Norwegians

First things first: For Norwegians, Easter is a big deal.

Many travel to their family cabin, where they become the perfect stereotype of any «Visit Norway» poster, with knitted sweaters, skis and snowy mountains. Others happily stay in the city, thankful that the sun is back, after being gone most of the Winter.

It’s a long holiday associated with skiing, crime fiction and large eggs filled to the brim with candy. You can’t go anywhere without spotting small chicken figures, and did we mention that everything is coloured yellow?

Covid-19 hits Easter celebrations

Retailers make good business on selling the stuff people needs to celebrate holidays and be a part of the national traditions. At the same time, it’s a risk to fill the warehouse with seasonal products people buy a limited time a year.

14. of March, «lockdown» was announced for Oslo and Viken. At this time, Europris had filled the stores with candy, decor and products specifically made for the Easter season. It was critical to sell the stores’ Easter wares, with 93 of our stores closed down due to the restrictions.

Hege Gåsdal, Ecommerce Manager in Europris, describes it when she, along with other Norwegian retailers, had to shut the door on their customers. One-third of Europris closed.

We quickly launched «call, Vipps and pick-up» (Vipps is Norway’s largest payment and transactions app), which we promoted locally on the stores’ Facebook groups. Even with the restrictions, loyal customers swarmed our phones. We knew we had to do something with the europris.no’s Click & Collect, both to take the load off the stores’ phones and to make it available for everyone.

How we met the challenge

To be just as accessible as before, they started all over, to extend their digital presence on the existing Adobe Commerce platform. In one week, Visma delivered a full, extended Click & Collect solution. Previously, customers could only order one and one product, but now they could make reservations of whole carts, with contactless payment when picking them up. Easter was saves – just like before, customers could shop in their local Europris, through europris.no.

Click & Collect got launched in record time, and is a great example on how we’re evolving. Normally, it would take months, but we introduced it to employees and customers in just a week. 

Lean approach, implemented with co-creation

Reusing as much possible of the existing, digital infrastructure, with as few changes to the stores’ routines, customers should be able to get their products, with contactless payment and delivery.

Click & Collect had to make it possible to order many products in the one and same order. We had to get the solution up and running quickly, at the same time we had to keep safety and ease to a maximum, for both customers and employees. With focus and determination, from all involved, we got a solution that we now can iterate further on.

Using Adobe Commerce’s framework, especially the functionality around logistics, we made a pilot that extended the existing Click & Collect. A team of developers and architects worked around the clock to deliver a system that not only worked in Adobe Commerce, but Europris’ systems as well. At the same time, Europris implemented contactless payment in their physical stores, to ensure safety.

We wouldn’t have had Click & Collect without Visma Digital Commerce. They led the development, in tight co-creation with our group, spanning all our fields, to get the solution up fast. The response has been massive: Click & Collect has had an increase of 348 % since its launch.

Trust is key

Europris and Visma’s partnership is built on mutual trust, transparency and goals – over several years. This is their foundation for continuous co-creation as a team, delivering modern experiences that meet the expectations of end-customers – even in uncertain times.

COVID-19 has forced many retailers to rethink how they meet their customers and shown that you cannot necessarily follow 5-years plans to the dot. Agile project management, close coordination and insight give the insurance to pivot if needed, and we need to deliver the future of digital commerce a little earlier than first expected.