mY 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 and declining margins have pushed the Albert retail chain of supermarkets and hypermarkets to innovate.

Introduction

About the project

Brief

Challenge

Solution

Results

People

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, we encourage the purchase of packaging-free products. Smart solutions in retail not only help Albert, and customers, but also the environment.

What is our main contribution?

Creative Dock has come up with a brand new, digital-only loyalty program suitable for 21st century customers. The result is My 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.

What know-how did we use?

Corporate venture building
In-depth market
and industry analysis
Business design
& testing
Mobile app & Smart home solutions
About

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 My 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. How to be appealing to younger or digitally savvy shoppers, who might have grown up with digital technologies, while remaining equally understandable and functional for older users. Of course, we also need to tackle how to do it all in an eco-friendly way and how to encourage sustainable shopping behavior among customers. And finally – how to 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 My 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 My 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

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plastic cards have been issued thanks to My Albert’s in-app digital loyalty card

Two years after its launch, My 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.

People
product lead

David Rektorys

Product Manager

Jan Bertl

Scrum Master

Jitka Jindrichova

Lead Developer

David Novak

Lead Developer

Vladimir Tichy

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