muj albert
Modern shopping in the traditional sector for one million users
With the rise of modern technology, two worlds of food retail now exist side by side. The fast and convenient world of online shopping and the traditional world of shops and supermarkets, where people can still get the feel of the goods and choose exactly what they want. The challenging market of offline retail have motivated the Albert retail chain of supermarkets and hypermarkets to innovate.
Introduction
Retail chains are gaining new competitors from the online environment in the digital age. However, they have the opportunity to leverage their brick-and-mortar stores to deliver an excellent customer experience. And technology plays a crucial role.
With the app, we have fully digitized electronic receipts, leaflets, and magazines in line with Ahold’s sustainable approach. We reward customers for buying healthy food, and we encourage the purchase of packaging-free products. Smart solutions in retail not only help Albert and its customers, but also the environment.
Our main contribution
Creative Dock has come up with a brand new, digital-only loyalty program suitable for 21st century customers. The result is Muj Albert – a smartphone app with personalized offers, recipe suggestions, digital flyers and new issues of Albert magazines, but most importantly, it allows users to collect credits which provide a discount on their future purchases.
Corporate venture building
In-depth market and industry analysis
Business design & testing
Mobile app
About the project
Czech Republic is above the EU
average when it comes to buying
food and drinks online.
Customers can be divided into three groups. Those who shop traditionally at retailers, those
who shop online, taking advantage of convenient features like home delivery, and finally those
who go to traditional stores and search for competitive prices using their smartphone. Later,
they buy the cheaper option online. This practice, known as showrooming, can be countered
by an omnichannel approach, where several channels operate simultaneously and interact
with each other. For retailers like Albert, this was the right way to go. That's why in 2020,
together with the Ahold Group, we came up with the Muj Albert app. And offered millions of
Czechs a modern shopping experience in the traditional sector.
Brief
According to KPMG, only 20% of Czechs buy food online. We created a digital application to suit the real needs of our brick-and-mortar customers.
Shopping in brick-and-mortar stores still has an important position in the market. People simply like to go shopping and see the goods for themselves. Our team has worked with the knowledge that the biggest benefits customers cite are immediate delivery time, selecting food by appearance/freshness, and the ability to choose specific items as opposed to digitally displayed food. Our challenge, therefore, was to take all of this into account and create a digital app to take it all towards the benefits of a modern approach to shopping.
Challenge
89% of customers are retained by companies with strong omnichannel campaigns
250% higher frequency of omnichannel purchases compared to single channel marketing
90% higher customer retention rate compared to a single channel
The main challenge was figuring out how to respond to the recent rise of online shops. Firstly, how to be appealing to younger or digitally savvy shoppers, who might have grown up with digital technologies, while remaining equally comprehensible for older users. Additionally, we intend to do it all in an eco-friendly way and encourage sustainable shopping behaviour among customers. And finally – ensure that the new system is agile and ready for any functional twist and/or introduction of new features.
Solution
Loyalty app based on a data-driven business model
Reduced ecological footprint through digitalization
Only a data-driven business model will increase the speed of interaction with new trends and the flexibility of logistics. We combined many different functionalities (collecting points, recipes, digital receipts) and used a common synergy resulting in:
Introduction of the Muj Albert smartphone app
Gamification in the form of a new and improved loyalty program
Inspiration leading to action through recipes linked with automated shopping lists
Digital receipts being automatically stored in the app (instead of being printed on paper from the POS), increasing convenience and sustainability
Further reduced ecological footprint by digitizing leaflets and the Albert magazine
Optional healthy food promotion and incentive to purchase packaging-free products
App launch results
1.4 mil+
app downloads in 12 months
KPIs
for the whole year of 2021 fulfilled in 4 weeks
The Muj Albert app has shone the spotlight on retail, which has had to cope with many changes in recent years. It has adapted the traditional style of grocery shopping to modern technology and the demands of digitally native users. The app has sparked the topic of sustainability and the quality of food we buy. It was the most downloaded app on App Store and Google Play for several weeks. An instant success with customers, the app also caught the attention of the professional community, winning first place in the prestigious digital marketing competition, WebTop100, in 2021.
Positive Impact
4 out of 5 registered users
prefer receiving digital receipts in the app over a classic paper receipt
6,400 km of receipts
and 19 tons of receipt paper were saved in the app’s first year on the market
0
plastic cards have been issued thanks to Muj Albert’s in-app digital loyalty card
Today, two years after its launch, Muj Albert is among the most downloaded apps on the Czech market. Although the app’s primary goal was customer retention, it has since achieved much more than that. It now supports more than a million users in making healthier, more sustainable choices and promotes large-scale waste reduction with the help of gamification, positive motivation, and inspiring content.