The New and Improved Auchan Mobile App

Auchan retail chain of hypermarkets is some of the busiest and profitable businesses not just in Ukraine, but globally as well. They are one of the world’s leading distributors with representation in 15 countries. However, just like most major brands, they were not satisfied with what they have achieved thus far and were looking for new and improved methods of making the shopping experience more pleasurable. They decided to come up with a retail payment solution where the customer can use his or her mobile phone to instantly perform transactions and pay for all merchandise without ever leaving the Auchan app.

Off course, creating such a mobile app required a lot of planning, collaboration with the client and careful execution to roll out the exact product the Auchan was looking for. Let’s take a look at how the app came about.

Background

Nowadays, Mobile Proximity Payment (MPP) is very popular among customers because it offers a very convenient payment method and the most widely used proximity payment is Near Field Communication (NFC). Basically, there is a small antenna inside all smartphones that support NFC capabilities which allows communication with NFC readers in both directions to perform contactless payment transactions. Most top technology brands and the underlying POS infrastructure support NFC just like they support contactless credit and debit cards.

Prior to 2018, there was not a single bank in Ukraine which was certified to conduct NFC transactions. Furthermore, since not all smartphones come equipped with NFC modules, we developed the Quick Response code (QR code) which was used at first in the advertising method but quickly made its way to remote mobile payment systems. At its foundation, there’s a 2D barcode which contains encoded information thus allowing contactless transactions via a smartphone’s code reader.

The Solution

One of Auchan’s goals is to make the MyAuchan app one of the most sophisticated mobile apps on the market and jam-packed with cool features such as the geolocation of in-store products. In order to take their mobile app to a new level, the client required new cashless payment solutions which would be integrated inside the mobile app in order to reach as wide of an audience as possible.

After careful deliberation and research, we came up with a QR payment system where the customer could simply open the MyAuchan mobile app and provide the QR code that was generated for the transaction. The process would be as follows:

1. The cashier scans the merchandise;
2. After all of the items have been scanned, the cashier requests payment to close the transaction;
3. On the card payment terminal is a small screen on which the total amount due is located and a text which requests the customer to enter his/her PIN code. However, instead of a PIN code, the transaction is completed via QR code;
4. The customer can open the Auchan app and in the “Scan QR code” section he would need to scan the necessary QR code;
5. Once the QR code is scanned, the total amount due appears as well as the merchant who is requesting the transaction;
6. The customer needs to confirm the payment;
7. If everything is ok, the receipt will start printing immediately.

Results

The QR payment functionality was completed within three months as agreed with the client. Thanks to our mobile development Auchan reached new levels of customer satisfaction and revenue growth.

In order to keep up with the times, businesses in all sectors of the economy will have to harness new and up and coming technologies to stay competitive on the market. Since competition is fierce like never before, even a slight advantage could lead to huge revenue. Also, since almost all customers have smartphones nowadays, developing new mobile technology could just be the answer to customer retention issues. Remember, if you are not getting ahead, then you are falling behind.

You can be sure that your competitors are always thinking of and coming up with new ways to bring in new customers and poach some competitors away. In today’s economy, customers are always looking for convenience and personalization. They are always asking “What have you done for me lately?” Personalizing their shopping experience and making it more pleasant is what will keep your business not only afloat on the market, but gets you ahead.

Once customers feel that you genuinely care about them, they will keep coming back to you over and over again.