In five years, half of Varus customers will be making purchases on their own, using self-checkout or Scan&Go.

15.08.2024
Serhiy Plakhtyria, CIO VARUS

It's evident that in recent years, Varus has been actively implementing new advanced technologies. How exactly is the digital transformation taking place?

Varus' digital transformation is based on the desire to continuously improve the customer experience and meet our customers' needs. Additionally, many businesses are currently facing a shortage of personnel. Therefore, we are configuring services to make the shopping process simpler for customers and to ease the work for our employees.

That's why we are installing more self-checkout kiosks, have launched the Scan&Go quick shopping service, the Data Terminal app, the “Zbyraiko” program, and other technological solutions.

Self-checkout kiosks and the Scan&Go service allow customers to make purchases without interacting with a cashier. With these services, customers don't have to wait in line to pay at the cashier — the services meet this need regardless of the size of their shopping basket.

Our other solutions significantly expand the functionality and capabilities for our team. For example, the Data Terminal app is a data collection terminal right on a smartphone, allowing employees to quickly perform a range of tasks from anywhere, such as discounting products, printing price tags, writing off products, and moving goods, among others. We've incorporated as many features as possible into this app so that anyone can do everything they need: find a product, check its price, receive goods, verify availability, and so on.

The "Zbyraiko" program makes the process of assembling online orders fast and convenient. Order fulfillment specialists can independently customize product categories for placement in their specific store. This allows for more efficient order assembly and reduces processing time from 60 to 15 minutes.

Do you see prospects for the development of services that speed up customer purchases in Ukrainian retail, such as self-checkout kiosks (SCOs) and Scan&Go?

The solutions we've developed definitely have prospects. One self-checkout kiosk in a small store can serve twice as many customers as usual. Moreover, the SCO doesn’t get tired and doesn’t need breaks. It’s multifunctional and perfectly suited for any volume of purchases.

Experience shows that it's not just the youth using self-checkout kiosks now, but people of all ages. With proper communication, this practice will spread because once someone tries an SCO, they won’t want to return to regular cash registers.

This also applies to the Scan&Go quick shopping service, which allows customers to make and pay for purchases using their smartphone. This is particularly convenient if you need to buy a small number of items. Currently, it works like this: a customer adds products to a virtual basket and pays for them in the mobile app. Then, they show the security guard the purchase QR code at the exit. This option is available to customers in Varus stores in Dnipro, and soon it will be scaled to other cities.

In the future, we will also allow customers to simply pay and go, with no interaction with staff at all.

What percentage of self-checkout kiosks are already operational?

Currently, about a quarter of the checkout lanes in Varus stores are self-checkout kiosks. All new small-format stores open with SCOs, and the percentage ratio of traditional to self-checkout kiosks is 50/50. In larger stores, this ratio is slightly different: for every 10 regular checkout lanes, there are 6-7 SCOs.

What challenges did you face during the launch, particularly with Scan&Go?

Habit and understanding of the service's benefits play a significant role. For example, in Ukraine, a large number of people still use plastic cards because they are used to them. However, we know that once someone tries something new, they will appreciate its convenience. Initially, it will develop slowly, but the more people use these services, the more they will recommend them to their friends, so the number of users will grow.

From a technical standpoint, we control all processes and have developed standards and templates. Challenges can arise when searching for new solutions, such as using Scan&Go without needing a security guard to verify the purchase. But we continue testing and will definitely choose the optimal option.

Tell us about how IT work is organized in the network: what tasks are handled in-house, and for which do you hire external companies?

The Varus IT department consists of about 100 people responsible for all digital processes in the company. Each team handles its direction.

For example, there is a team of 10-12 people dedicated solely to preparing new stores for opening. They implement new technical solutions based on standards we've developed, which saves time when preparing to open new supermarkets. We also have a separate team for technical support of the stores. This is about 20 people who provide support on technical issues and software.

There is also an infrastructure team. These are the people who no one ever sees, but they are the first to respond to external threats to the network. For instance, last year, when we were targeted by a hacking attack from Russia, we quickly detected and repelled the attack. Thanks to this, the network's operations didn't stop.

I also want to highlight our project managers, analysts, and testers who study customer needs and translate them into IT language. They handle a large number of hypotheses and new solutions. Even if some solutions aren't implemented, they still help improve our service.

As for outsourcing companies, of course, we involve external specialists when needed, such as when we need something large-scale or beyond our capacity. This could also involve new expertise or market analysis.

Lastly, what are the network's plans? Are you planning to scale up the self-checkout kiosks and other services?

We can predict that in five years, half of Varus customers will be served automatically, using SCOs. In most network stores, the Scan&Go quick shopping service will be operational, and we also plan to integrate AI, which will make the shopping process even simpler.

We also plan to test new formats of self-checkout kiosks, which will be more adaptive. For example, hybrid kiosks that can switch to SCO mode if the staff member needs to step away.

The Varus team is definitely moving towards digitizing all processes and services: both for customers and employees. Our goal is to simplify shopping, make it as comfortable as possible, and provide customers with all modern payment and purchasing options.