News

The mobile phone as a shopping list

- "Mobile Shopping List" available throughout Germany

- One year real,- Future Store: New retail concepts are rolled out to further stores

- 15 percent sales growth and 20 percent new customers

On the occasion of the 1st anniversary of the real,- Future Store, Real looks back on a positive year. At the same time it also presents its latest customer service: the "Mobile Shopping List" for the mobile phone. Since the opening of the innovation workshop in May 2008 the latest technologies as well as innovative retail concepts have been tested and developed for application in the field.

As from today, Real customers across Germany can prepare electronic shopping lists and download them to their mobile phone. Handwritten lists will thus become superfluous; the next purchase can be directly planned online at www.real.de. Customers whose mobile phones are equipped with an autofocus camera can alternatively scan the bar code on the product packaging and use it for preparing their electronic shopping list. The shopping list can thus be accessed any time from any place. "The 'Mobile Shopping List' represents the first step towards using the mobile phone as a shopping assistant", said Zygmunt Mierdorf, Member of the Management Board of METRO Group. "The rollout of this mobile phone application demonstrates how innovative modern customer service can be".

The application was developed and tested for one year at the real,- Future Store – the innovation workshop of the METRO Group Future Store Initiative opened in May 2008. In this hypermarket further mobile phone applications are already tested. Customers can for example request product information or pay wirelessly by mobile phone. "Modern mobile phones are getting increasingly powerful and offer interesting opportunities for new customer services. The 'Mobile Shopping List' is a logical step for us", said Zygmunt Mierdorf. "By providing product information on mobile phones or introducing new checkout processes at the future Store, Real takes a pioneering role in the rollout of innovative retail services".

"Shopping at the hypermarket of the future" is popular with the customers

In addition to technical innovations also new retail concepts for field application were developed in Toenisvorst. The novel holistic concept of the "hypermarket of the future" is well received with the customers. Recent customer surveys have shown that the real,- Future Store was able to further improve in terms of customer satisfaction. While in a survey conducted in September 2008 already 88 percent had stated that they were 'satisfied' or 'very satisfied' with their shopping, this value is now substantially higher coming in at 98 percent. Also many new customers were attracted – they amount to 20 percent of all customers by now. This excellent result also reflects in the sales figures. Since its re-opening last year the real,- Future Store has recorded a distinct sales growth in nearly all assortment areas; on average, sales rose by 15 percent.

Moreover, within one year the real,- Future Store has increased the reputation of the city of Toenisvorst well beyond the region. More than 9,000 visitors from 30 countries have participated in one of the guided tours of the hypermarket over the last twelve months.

"Our objective was to get innovations off the ground with the Future Store. And the results show that we have been very successful at this," said the Managing Director Sales of Real, Roland Neuwald. "For example our fish service counter, which addresses all senses with its presentation of the merchandise on ice, the sounds of the sea in the background, scented ambience as well as a fish projection on the floor. It is for a good reason that we have been presented the award 'fish counter of the year 2008'", said Neuwald. "But we are acutely aware of the fact that the deployment of new technologies only makes sense if it supports our overall goal of achieving one hundred percent customer satisfaction".

Innovations for tomorrow's hypermarket

Sustainable developments from the real,- Future Store that have received a positive rating by the customers are also rolled out to other stores. Already back in autumn 2008 individual technologies and also complete retail concepts were deployed to other Real hypermarkets in Germany. Concept innovations such as the "Der Meistermetzger" butcher shop or the "beauty & more" drugstore concept have already been rolled out to some 25 stores. Overall, various innovations from the real,- Future Store are to be deployed to around 80 Real hypermarkets. Multimedia terminals or reverse vending machines with couponing functions are already available in many other Real hypermarkets now.

Real SB-Warenhaus GmbH is a METRO Group company. The Real brand is associated with a comprehensive assortment of brand-name products and strong expertise in offering fresh products that are good value for money. Under the umbrella of Real SB-Warenhaus GmbH, the company operates 343 hypermarkets throughout Germany and another 96 stores in Poland, Romania, Russia and Turkey. In 2008, the company generated net sales of € 11.6 billion. More information at: www.real.de.

The METRO Group Future Store Initiative founded in 2002 aims to drive forward the modernisation process in the retail sector and develop practical concepts suited for use in the field for tomorrow's retailing. More than 90 partners from the IT and consumer goods industries, the services sector and academia have regrouped under this initiative. Partners include companies such as SAP, Intel, IBM, T-Systems and Cisco as well as a consortium of Fujitsu Services, Fujitsu Siemens Computers and Siemens. The central platform of the METRO Group Future Store Initiative is the real,- Future Store in Toenisvorst opened in May 2008. In this hypermarket of the future the partners are testing new technologies and concepts under practical conditions and developing them further until they are ready for marketing. More information at: www.future-store.org

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