Helios retail - A planningproject for digitalisation within retail stores

Important results from the project

The purpose of the study has been to, in cooperation between the parties, identify real digitalisation needs in terms of physical store operation. By cross-domain collaboration at an early stage - the aim has been to break down traditional silos and via collaboration identifying accurate and enough of underlying needs. The goal was to verify that the digitization of selected processes of a store creates value within five selected areas. The project verified a great potential in all five areas and mapped prerequisites in retail stores as well as within production plants.

Expected long term effects

The study indicate real values of digitization within retail environments. Tested prototypes in the study indicates major time savings and efficiency gains. The effect of this is that key personell in the stores can focus on their core processes and save resources by reducing handling of manual operations, loss prevention and in addition better security and safety compliance. Real-time operation from one single interface adds on additional value and easy of use. The study shows that extensive software development and further follow up is needed in order to launch an export product.

Approach and implementation

The study was conducted through Service design methodology where the starting point was, besides conducting interviews, to test prototypes together with ICA Maxi 421. This has created a broad understanding of the physical store environment. The solution also turned out to be applicable within manufacturing plants. To test prototype in the actual environment in the store has given results in the form of rich empirical data with insights and knowledge that would have been lost in a traditional development environment. The knowledge transfer has been proven high with this approach.