Retail Smart Application: From Long Queues to Seamless Supermarket Shopping, Revolutionizing Retail Digitalization

A leading retail company in Japan, operating 4 famous supermarket brands with over 650 stores nationwide, aimed to thrive through digital transformation. Known for leveraging advanced technologies with their business strategy, the company sought to enhance both operations and customer experience through continuous innovations 

To address the client’s requirement, VTI, as their DX partner developed packaged digital solutions – retail mobile applications – Scan&Go that enhance the customer experience and operational efficiency.

Client’s Requirements 

With growing customer demand and smartphone adoption, the company identified their need to modernize shopping and checkout due to:

•  Shoppers frequently faced long checkout lines, leading to dissatisfaction and missed sales opportunities. 
• Unoptimized promotion programs (paper coupons, uncentralized points), fail to attract the maximum number of customers. The company aimed to leverage digital transformation to enhance customer engagement through loyalty programs and digital promotions while reducing operational costs.

They required a solution, achieving key objectives:

• Cost Optimization & Operational Efficiency: Reduce cashier workforce costs and improve store management efficiency.
• Enhanced Customer Experience: Boosting customer engagement and loyalty through a seamless, intelligent shopping experience.
• Higher Store Foot Traffic & Revenue Growth: Encouraging repeat visits, minimizing wait times, and increasing overall revenue.

VTI, chosen as the DX partner, provided packaged digital solutions—retail mobile apps—to meet these needs. With expertise in backend, mobile development, and retail technology, VTI quickly transformed ideas into scalable applications, ensuring continuous innovation across web & mobile.

VTI’s Solutions

VTI delivered a full-cycle development service from low-level to high-level development, covering:  

• Requirement definition: Conducted an in-depth evaluation of the client’s requirements, creating a detailed design for the client’s requested features.
• UI/UX Design: Designed a high-performance, visually appealing, and intuitive user interface to provide a seamless shopping experience, ensuring ease of use and customer satisfaction.
• Application Development (Coding): Developed a robust, scalable, and responsive mobile application, that supports cross-platform functionality.
• Testing (Unit Testing, Integration Testing): Conducted testing to ensure a stable, bug-free application before deployment.
• Maintenance: Provided continuous support and updates, refining features and improving performance based on user feedback and business requirements.

The “Supper App” comprised three main applications:

1. Scan&Go

Check in at the nearest store and shop without going through the register. Users scan items using their smartphones and process payments directly within the app, eliminating the need for cashier queues.

Other highlight features:

• Gate App: Customers complete checkout by scanning their card at a terminal, enabling purchase verification and security checks (the store has the uploaded product purchase details, including the age restriction with alcoholic beverages)

• Nutritional value visible display: The app can track purchase data, visualize the nutritional balance of the chosen products, and even suggest nutrient-rich ingredients/ dishes for users.

• Pop-up Survey feature: Displays NPS (Net Promoter Score) surveys post-purchase, customizable for stores, products, and registers. This would help stores to evaluate and get more insights.

• Coupons and promotional measures: Issue personalized electronic coupons and display promotional banners that are synergistic with the store’s banner to enhance consistency and boost sales.

2. Online Delivery

Enables users to shop for groceries from home through the app or website. In other words, users just need to select products and make payments from afar then they can choose store pick-up, or receive home delivery.

This would ease the burden on the shoppers: no heavy carrying, no long wait time.

3. Order&Eat

Allows customers to pre-order food or reserve tables at in-store restaurants. This feature not only enables stores to streamline selling flow, and boost sales but also makes it convenient for customers to reduce significant waiting time at the registers at the check-out. Instead, they can pay in advance and just need to pick up their freshly cooked food at the store or have it home delivered.

Result

• High User Adoption: The app reached over 900,000 downloads by the end of 2024. The application is used across 500+ supermarket stores in Japan
• Strong User Retention: Frequent updates and loyalty-based features contributed to a high return user rate. The app is highly rated for its concept & UX/UI
• 71% Performance Enhancement: Initial performance challenges were addressed, but with VTI’s Kaizen core value, the team quickly researched, identified the problems, and had improvement measures, leading to a 71% performance boost.
• Increased Customer Engagement: The app integrated a robust loyalty program, offering monthly digital coupons, personalized events such as birthday rewards, and special promotions, enhancing customer retention and repeat purchases.

Project Scale

• Headcounts: Upto 30
• Development duration: 12 months (until first phase release) and continue the maintenance phase.
• Working model: Hybrid (Onsite & Offshore)

Technology used

• Cross-platform development: React Native for a seamless mobile experience.
• Backend architecture: Microservices using C# for scalability and flexibility.
• UI/UX design: A high-performance, user-friendly interface ensuring intuitive navigation and a smooth shopping experience.

The Future of Retail: Digital-First and Customer-Centric

The retail industry is evolving rapidly, with digital transformation (DX) playing a crucial role in enhancing customer experiences and operational efficiency. VTI empowers retailers with cutting-edge, comprehensive technology, and mobile application development services that streamline shopping, boost engagement, and optimize store operations. 

From seamless self-checkout to personalized loyalty programs, etc. our solutions drive innovation and business growth in the digital retail landscape.

>> Accelerate your retail transformation with advanced mobile application development.