Innovating today to be relevant tomorrow
At Colruyt Group, we innovate with future generations in mind. We use digitalisation, data, technology and other smart solutions to create added value for people. By continuously experimenting, learning and adjusting, we ensure that our retail activities continue to provide relevant answers to the evolving needs of our customers.
What is our view on innovation?
Innovation in service of the customer
Relevant and accessible offer
Innovation is, first and foremost, a way to offer relevant and accessible solutions to our customers:
- Innovative products and assortments such as Boni Plan’t, our range of more than 100 plant-based products.
- Expansion of assortments in stores, for example the parapharmacy range in Colruyt stores.
- New store concepts such as Okay City make quick groceries possible in urban areas.
- The lowest prices are made possible, among other things, by cost-reducing innovations in the supply chain, such as self-driving vehicles.
- Advanced personalisation in the Xtra app makes preparing your shopping list increasingly easier.
- Smart systems such as the Smart Cart, checkouts with camera technology and fully automated store formats such as Okay Direct save time at the checkout.
- Continuous improvement and expansion of Collect&Go services (e.g. home delivery) provide additional flexibility.
Recent news
Collect&Go combines Colruyt and Bio-Planet in a single online shop
“Innovation is the result of hard work, with an open mind and the drive to find creative solutions step by step for the needs of our customers.”
Simplicity as a compass for innovation
Historically rooted
‘Simplicity in retail’ has always been an important driver of innovation at Colruyt Group. Throughout our rich history, we have consistently embraced technological developments to make our organisation smart, simple and agile. In 1965, we were the first Belgian retailer to introduce punch cards for stock management. In the 1980s, we were the first to roll out the barcode. At the time, both innovations led to unprecedented gains in efficiency and convenience for customers and employees alike.
Common sense
In the meantime, creativity and experimentation in the pursuit of simplicity have become part of our DNA. We rely on the common sense of our employees to suggest improvements. For example, it was an IT employee who suggested exploring computer vision and product recognition, laying the foundation for the Smart Cart. It is this ingenuity that leads to sustainable added value for future generations.
Innovation by and for people
The expertise of our colleagues…
Innovative solutions come from people working together. Employees in our stores and in supporting activities such as IT, Technics & Engineering, Food Production, Supply Chain and Real Estate daily on solutions that make our retail smarter, more efficient and more sustainable. When additional knowledge, speed or scale is needed beyond our own expertise, we collaborate with external and local partners. In some cases, we choose to invest strategically in a partner in order to anchor certain innovations within the group.
... for our colleagues
When designing, testing and rolling out innovations, we never lose sight of the end users. These can be our customers, but also our colleagues. Automation and robotics in our distribution centres reduce physically demanding and repetitive work for logistics employees, while checkouts with smart camera technology ensure that store employees have to bend less and can keep both hands free. Technology serves people, not the other way around.
Recent news
Colruyt Group increases its stake in Smartmat NV to 100%
Colruyt Lowest Prices first retailer to introduce customers to a self-developed ‘Smart Cart’, a Belgian first
Frequently asked questions
-
Innovation improves our logistics operations in several ways:
- More efficient: in all links of the supply chain, we continuously look for new ways to save time and costs. Replenishment is forecast using artificial intelligence, automatic order picking requires less manpower and less space, etc.
- More ergonomic: physically demanding work is taken over by automation and robotics.
- More sustainable: we invest, among other things, in emission-free freight transport and prevent food loss through an optimal cold chain and data applications that predict expected product demand per store.
-
In the collective memory, we are often associated with the wind turbine. In 1999, we built the first of many wind turbines that generate green energy for our daily operations. More recently, we are also known for the following innovations:
- Smart checkout systems such as ‘easy checkout’ and the Smart Cart, using product recognition and artificial intelligence.
- Fully automated city stores with Okay Direct.
- ‘Future-proof’ distribution centres with self-driving vehicles and automatic order picking.
- Production from A to Z, where we manage the entire chain from raw materials to end product, for example Belgian mussels from our own sea farm or Belgian wine from vineyards under our own management.