Bonprix tests the digitalized shopping process from check-in via app to automatic payment!
Bonprix generates around 85 percent of its annual turnover of 1.57 billion euros in e-commerce. The fashion company in Hamburg is testing the potential that digital shopping can also have in stationary trade. In the "Fashion Connect" store, "classic" shortcomings of the retail trade, such as rummaged shop shelves, narrow and poorly lit cabins or long queues at checkouts, are to be addressed by technical innovations.
The store will present around 750 fashion items in combination with accessories and shoes. The products on offer change every eight weeks in twelve parallel theme worlds. Customers can organize their shopping experience completely independently via an app in the store, including self-scanning and self-checkout.
Compiled by RFID & Wireless IoT Global with information from Bonprix.
The App as a Shopping Remote Control
The central element in the pilot store is a further development of the existing Bonprix App. With the app, the customer checks into the store, scans the items, and selects the sizes he or she wants to try on. The selected garments are stored in the app's virtual shopping bag and made available directly in the fitting room. Bonprix relies on the "One-Item- Presentation" concept for the realization of the store design: each item of clothing and each accessory is presented only once in a total of 12 theme worlds.
Individual Service Intended to Create a Pleasant Atmosphere
After the desired articles have been recorded via QR code and app, a dressing room is individually prepared for the customer. The preparation time can be spent at the fashion bar in the store. The customer is then invited to the fitting room reserved for him/her, where the items ordered have been prepared for fitting. The cabin has four selectable lighting scenarios.
A display reflects the contents of the Bonprix App and shows the next steps. If an item of clothing does not fit, a different size can be reordered directly in the fitting room via the app. If a personal consultation is desired or help is needed, a fashion assistant can be notified via app.
Quick Check-Out
In order to avoid long waiting times at a conventional checkout, the customer can choose from various payment options. To do so, the customer leaves the fitting room with the desired items and the app's shopping bag is automatically updated. Integrated RFID technology records all items that are taken by the customer. The customer can pay via PayPal directly in the app, by EC or credit card at the self-checkout or, if desired, in cash at the checkout counter. An additional security measure is not necessary.
Two years development time
The opening of the pilot store in Hamburg in mid-February 2019 was preceded by more than two years of development, conception and testing. The RFID solution was designed and implemented together with the systems integrator Mieloo & Alexander.
A conclusion of the project is deliberately not set. Instead, Bonprix promotes a learning process, so that the roadmap of the store concept is continuously being developed. Flexibility and adaptability is an integral part of integrating customer requirements and feedback into the shopping experience at short notice. "Currently, Bonprix is focusing on exploiting the multi-channel and re-targeting the potential of the concept. An important milestone in this respect will be the introduction of endless aisle elements in the first quarter, where online orders can be placed from the store as part of an extended product shelf," says Daniel Füchtenschnieder, Managing Director of Bonprix Retail, looking ahead.
Daniel Füchtenschnieder, Managing Director of Bonprix Retail and responsible for the development and realization of the store concept: “We perceive and learn a lot, let our impressions flow directly into the concept, and are constantly developing the store further. In this way, we want to inspire our customers time and time again.”
