The Importance of Customer Loyalty
The key measure of success for any business is retaining customer loyalty. While brand value, product quality and service delivery are crucial, the sales experience often becomes the linchpin in building lasting customer relationships. The end goal of which is to create a mutually beneficial relationship, this case study explores how Ergonomic Solutions and EDEKA developed such a relationship.
EDEKA’s Retail Empire
Founded in 1907, EDEKA has grown into a retail powerhouse with 7,000 stores and 410,000 employees across Germany. The Northern Bayern, Sachsen, and Thüringen (EDEKA NBST) region alone comprises 850 stores, generating €5 billion in sales.
The Challenge
With such a large estate, keeping track of individual stores' POS hardware becomes a major challenge, particularly when reviewing IT upgrades and maintenance. As such EDEKA recognised the need for a standardised approach to POS installations and checkout furniture across various store designs.
They turned to Ergonomic Solutions, known for their modular, configurable customisable SpacePole range for a comprehensive and adaptable solution.
2017
Innovative Solutions: Ergonomic Solutions introduced EDEKA to height-adjustable gas arms for their POS screens. These arms addressed issues such as Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI), absenteeism, and staff turnover by allowing operators to optimise screen height, enhancing ergonomics and productivity. The configurable height adjustable arm ensured compatibility with POS systems from Diebold Nixdorf, NCR, and 4POS, becoming a standard feature for new installations and lifecycle renewals.
2019 - 2022
Continuous Improvement: EDEKA sought further optimisation of their POS stations, integrating new POS systems and weigh scales, and adding Kensington locks for Verifone P400 terminals, supported by customised Multigrip® plates.
New SpacePole configurations were defined to support special hospitality installations like bakeries.
2020-2022
Adapting to Change: The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of self-service and self-checkout technologies. These technologies were seen as safer and faster alternatives to traditional checkouts, allowing retailers to reassign staff to other customer-facing duties, address long-term staff shortages, and free up valuable sales space.
Building a Partnership
For a supplier-customer relationship to last 15 years, it must be based on trust and collaboration, to the point where advocates are created in each other's companies. In the case of EDEKA and Ergonomic Solutions, these advocates were EDEKA Head of IT, Pierre Vieweg, and Ergonomic Solutions Account Manager, Markus Dierkes.
Highlighted when Pierre Vieweg visited our Danish design and manufacturing facility, deepening the collaboration on new projects.
Enhancing the Shopper Experience
Through innovative solutions and a strong supplier-customer relationship, EDEKA continues to enhance the shopping experience, ensuring customer loyalty and advocacy for years to come. As Pierre Vieweg noted, "We know what we want, and our Account Manager, Markus Dierkes, and his colleagues understand those needs. The team at Ergonomic Solutions shows a perfect pairing between ideas, development, and production—that’s the way solutions should be created."
By evolving with their customers, EDEKA and Ergonomic Solutions exemplify how strategic partnerships and innovative technology can drive success in the competitive retail market.
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Ergonomic Solutions is an established, leading global supplier of innovative and ergonomically designed technology mounting solutions for the retail, hospitality and transportation industries and an expert in mPOS and mobile technology mounting solutions that enable frictionless transactions with less personal contact.
For more information, contact info@ergonomic.solutions
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