Corporate News: From a pilot project to a successful business model

How 44,000 smartphones at MediaMarktSaturn increase productivity as well as service and consultation quality. Introduced as a pilot project in Germany, MediaMarktSaturn's employee smartphones have become a successful business model within two years. Around 44,000 devices, including the "MyStore" and "Pick'n'Pack" apps developed in-house, are now in use by almost all store associates in all of the approximately 1,000 stores in Europe. Thanks to digital support, productivity has improved significantly. This leaves employees more time for customer consultation and service. A particularly attractive feature is the 30-minute pick-up guarantee.

"Our employee smartphones and, above all, the apps that we have developed ourselves and digitalization of core processes offer significant added value for our customers and employees," says Marius Lückemeyer, Managing Director MediaMarktSaturn Technology and Vice President Omnichannel at MediaMarktSaturn Retail Group. "With this solution, we are leading the retail industry in this area. We are increasing our productivity, improving internal employee communication and, above all, increasing customer satisfaction."

At the heart of the employee smartphones is the "MyStore" app. With this digital sales assistant, the employees can call up all the product information online directly at the store shelf when they receive customer inquiries. It can also be used to compare products and check product availability – online, on site, or in nearby stores – as well as to compare prices. If desired, coupons and customer club data can be retrieved. Even online orders can be placed directly at the store shelf thanks to the app. And all of this can be done in the shortest possible time, because what now takes 45 seconds for new orders used to take up to four minutes – without a smartphone and app. With around one million orders in November 2021 alone in Germany, this is an enormous time saving that employees can use to provide even better and more intensive customer consultation. Across the group, more than 3 billion euros in order volume was already processed last year via the digital companion of the store consultants.

Ordered online, picked up at the store - in just 30 minutes

As an important component of the omnichannel strategy – the availability of products, services and advice online and offline across all channels – this new form of work enables even closer integration of all distribution channels. The specially developed "Pick'n'Pack" app digitizes and accelerates the processing of orders in so-called "Pick Up" and "Ship From Store" processes. In both cases, customers can order their product both online and offline and arrange for it to be delivered to their home or picked up at the store as they wish. Thanks to the time saved with the "Pick'n'Pack" app, MediaMarktSaturn guarantees its customers that the goods ordered online will be ready for pick-up in the store within just 30 minutes. With a pick-up rate of about 40 percent, this option is very popular. And the reverse is also possible: In around 20 percent of cases, store employees initiate an online order for customers during the sales talk.

At the same time, smartphones are significantly improving internal communication. Employees have access to various communication apps and internal platforms anytime and anywhere. The internal social media network in particular has shown itself to be an important communication tool here in recent months. Appropriately prepared content, such as explanatory videos, provides employees with information quickly and easily. There is also a lively exchange of experiences on this platform. The tech colleagues and developers can also count on the "swarm intelligence" and feedback of the store employees in order to continuously improve the existing apps, digitalizations and processes.