29.08.2019 by Daniel Kunz

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Digital price tags, in-store video displays managed centrally and eye-tracking glasses: Globus, with its specialist DIY stores, is one of the most digitalized retailers in Germany. The reason for its success? A highly professional technical infrastructure that enables Globus to systematically provide innovations offering a high customer benefit.

Augmented-reality glasses, autonomous cars and service robots: Many people still associate the term digitalization primarily with flashy applications having little relevance to their everyday lives. However, it’s often the most inconspicuous innovations providing the greatest benefits to customers. For example, the digital price tags that the DIY-retail chain Globus relies on: Customers can be sure that they will always see the correct price on every product. While digital price tags were initially very pixelated, low-contrast and difficult to read, the technology is now much improved. But thanks to high-performance data transmission, the resolution at Globus stores is now so good that a digital price tag can hardly be distinguished from a traditional paper label. This saves the retailer the time-consuming and costly process of pricing everything manually.

ALL VIDEO MONITORS CONTROLLED CENTRALLY

Globus has also digitalized the special offers and how-to videos that are shown on 50 monitors on shelves throughout each store. In the past, employees had to switch on every one of these screens by hand each morning. But if a data stick with a video went missing, it would set of a hectic rush to find a replacement. To complicate matters even further, product suppliers often had different kinds of monitors. Now all this is in the past, as the process is run centrally at the push of a button. And every error message across the company is recorded immediately and automatically.

CLEAR CUSTOMER BENEFITS INSTEAD OF TECHNICAL GIMMICKS

To discover what the DIY store of the future will look like, visit the Globus store in the western German city of Saarlouis. Opened in 2016, it is now the chain’s largest branch. Here, just a few kilometers away from the group’s headquarters in Völklingen, Globus IT specialists and experts from the various other departments are developing the hardware store of the future. The concept is simple: What works at the Saarlouis store is rolled out by employees throughout the rest of the country.

ALL BASED ON A FUTURE-PROOF ALL-IP NETWORK

The first step towards creating the store of the future was the development of a uniform data and communication network throughout the entire company – as foundation and framework for customer-oriented innovations within the increasingly digitalized DIY chain. Within 18 months, T-Systems had equipped all 91 Globus stores nationwide with fiber optic lines and WiFi. Both bandwidth and availability are now guaranteed right down to the last corner of every department. T-Systems has also converted the chain to all-IP technology. Because the concept is scalable, each new store, even abroad, can be brought online at the push of a button as soon as the necessary hardware is installed.

As a result, all cash registers, telephones, Internet, WiFi and the rest – no matter in which Globus store – are now connected to the main network via fiber optic lines, a so-called MPLS backbone. Instead of having its own telephone connections, the branches use a central telephone system from Cisco that, of course, uses the local area codes. Accordingly, this enabled Globus to eliminate all existing copper phone lines.

PRACTICAL INNOVATIONS

Globus has been steadily building out its digital operations since establishing this digitalized foundation. Still, the retailer believes every digital innovation must be well-tested before it can be deployed nationwide. T-Systems has also provided the company with support in this regard, for example, with expertise in data management, cloud computing, IT security, German data protection standards and the Internet of Things.

There are already initial learnings: virtual reality glasses intended to be used by customers to combine bathroom furnishings, for example, turned out to be too bulky and cumbersome. And robots meant to lead customers to certain products or shelves are also unsuitable for everyday use – at least for the time being. On the other hand, special glasses enabling eye-tracking have proven their worth. They provide valuable information by tracing the eye movements of selected customers as they move through the store. This, in turn, informs where and how products are placed in the shelves and where sale ads are most effective. Globus also wants to increase the link between virtual online and real in-store shopping. The technical foundation the next digital advancement has already been laid.