The Client
Coop is the second-largest retail group in Switzerland. Serving five sales regions, Coop operates over 1,800 stores and has a workforce of approximately 53,000 employees. As an enterprise organized along cooperative lines, Coop’s primary commitment is to its two million-plus member households who frequent its stores. This commitment is reflected in Coop’s corporate profile, “We are close to our customers,” and their pledge to provide environmentally friendly and fair-trade products. Founded in 1890, today Coop aims to provide better products and services than any other supermarket in Switzerland.
Starting Point- Find a way to alleviate long checkout lines
Coop sought to offer supermarket customers an innovative shopping experience that leveraged self-scanning technology while shopping in stores to expedite the checkout process. After implementing their successful Passabene self-checkout system utilizing dedicated handheld scanners and checkout kiosks, Coop wanted to expand its self-checkout solution to customers’ mobile devices to empower customers, personalize the shopping experience and connect with shoppers in a whole new way.
Vision- Develop a simple and intuitive self-scanning mobile app
The vision for the Passabene mobile app was to allow Coop customers to use their personal smartphones to scan items and add them directly to their own shopping bags as they move through the store. This way, customers could take control of their own checkout processes, avoid the traditional checkout experience and effectively say goodbye to long checkout lines in stores. But the benefits would go far beyond the checkout line.
With a mobile app in hand, customers could receive a more intimate shopping experience with instant access to the latest deals, store information and customer loyalty programs. For Coop, this would ultimately establish a more personal relationship and higher levels of engagement with its customers. In essence, the new Passabene app would provide a complete and seamless shopping experience that puts the customers center stage and in charge of their individual shopping journey.
Solution- Scan products in store using Scandit’s mobile barcode scanner
To put this vision into practice, Coop realized they would need barcode scanning technology that performed with the speed and accuracy of a traditional handheld scanner, so customers could incorporate the Passabene app into their shopping experience without giving it a second thought. Their user experience had to be absolutely seamless, and the scan technology would need to overcome many technical obstacles for customers such as poor overhead lighting, high amounts of glare, and a broad range of packaging surfaces and device form factors.
In order to ensure customers could successfully use the Passabene app in the store environment, Coop needed to implement a fast, flexible and easy-to-use self-scanning technology. When Coop began to research mobile barcode scanners, Scandit’s Barcode Scanner SDK stood out among competitors as the fastest and most reliable solution. Not only did Scandit outperform the competition in all internal tests, scanned barcodes from any angle, on all kinds of surfaces and on the largest number of consumer devices, Scandit also offered the world-class support and simple integration they needed to make Passabene come to life.
The Results- Reinvention of the retail shopping experience
Since its launch, the Passabene self-scanning app has been overwhelmingly successful and is now available in over 100 stores across Switzerland, with more than 280,000 customers having registered for the Passabene system. Customers are increasingly engaging with the innovative checkout experience and further expansion is scheduled with more stores being added in the near future. As Passabene’s popularity continues to grow and more users download the app, Coop doesn’t have to worry about updating their barcode scanning technology. Today, Coop takes comfort in having a world-class support team to lean on and regular updates that continue to support a broad range of devices. To this day, Scandit continues to work with Coop to enable the highest level of performance, ensuring consistent and accurate barcode scanning across thousands of mobile devices.
The Passabene system is responsible for up to 25%* of revenue at each Passabene-enabled store and that number continues to grow as more and more customers enroll. Most importantly, however, Coop reports customer satisfaction being very high as customers become more empowered through a personalized shopping experience and shortened wait times at checkout. The end result is that Coop continues to build a more personal relationship with its customers.
*(Self-scanning app, handheld scanners and self-checkout terminals combined)
“With the integration of Scandit, Coop has been able to deliver a robust, high performance mobile application that provides a personalized shopping experience for customers while simultaneously driving revenue for the company. ”
August Harder
CIO, Coop Group Cooperative
