Bringing the concept of “unconditional customer happiness” to the retail industry, Boyner Group continues to invest in new technologies. It combines the online and offline worlds with “My Assistant”, which is started to be used by sales consultants in Boyner Group stores. Boyner Group Omnichannel and Technology Director Sedat Yıldırım answered our questions about the project achieved by partnership with Luna Information Technologies and its future goals.

How do you evaluate 2016 in terms of your company and the sector you are in?
2016 has been a difficult year for both our country and the sector we are in. The economic and political developments experienced led to the completion of both our country and the retail sector with growth figures that were below expectations. However, at Boyner Group, thanks to the measures we took and our efficiency efforts, we managed to grow our retail sales by 5% in 2016, above the average of Turkey and the sector.

How did the idea of adapting your stores to digital technologies arise?
The digital revolution has gained momentum in recent years. However, no matter how e-commerce grows, 85% of the turnover still comes from the customer-facing store channel. On the other hand, in the omnichannel world, it is predicted that 82% of shopping will be influenced by the internet and mobile in 2020, and store sales of successful companies in digital channels are also increasing. Today, stores have become environments where brands turn into meaning & experience, rather than just product delivery places, and it is necessary to achieve a technological harmony between the customer and the sales consultants. The “My Assistant” application was came out with this perspective.

Boyner Group launched a brand new application called “My Assistant” in its stores last year. How was this application realized?
My Assistant is a 100% native application with its UX and application development stages. First of all, we determined our partners in this project. We worked with Userspots for UX and Appcent for application development.

We identified the life and needs in the field through workshops organized with the field team. Accordingly, we determined the scope and roadmap of the application.
For the hardware part of this project, which aims to mobilize our sales consultants, we cooperated with Luna Information Technologies and decided on Bluebird brand devices.
We started our pilot application at Beymen Erenköy store in August. Currently, “My Assistant” is used in all Beymen stores, Wepublic, Boyner and Aymarka Istanbul stores.

What kind of digital transformation are you planning in stores by these devices offered by Luna Information Technologies?
The main reasons we chose the Bluebird EF400 model devices were their industrial durability, barcode reader and light weight compared to their competitors. Thus, our sales consultants can reach product details, stock and campaign information in a mobile way without leaving the customer’s side and without interrupting the service. Moreover, if a product is not available in that store, it can be ordered and delivered to the customer’s home or to the store of his choice. Thus, the boundaries in merchandising are removed. Thanks to these devices, all pre-payment order transactions can be moved to the pre-checkout, thus contributing to reducing the cash register queues.

In the near future, we aim to bring to life a cashless shopping process where mobile payments are also completed thanks to these devices.

What were your achievements as a result of this project?
First of all, our sales consultants, the ambassadors of our brands in the field, increase their power with specially assigned mobile devices. Accordingly, we also observed an increase in job engagement and Sales Consultant satisfaction.

As a result of choosing mobile devices instead of fixed terminals to run this application, we saved the store square meter and allowed it to be used more efficiently.

Based on our principle of “Unconditional Customer Happiness”, our customers, who receive faster, uninterrupted and personalized service, leave the store more satisfied.

Since we can process the transactions made by the assistants more clearly into the CRM data, we aim to offer a more personalized experience with the features we add as time goes on.
In short, we can define the “My Assistant” application as an innovation project that realizes a digital revolution in merchandising. Last April, we won the award in the “Best Digital Customer Experience” category at the World Retail Awards, surpassing world brands such as M&S and El Corte Ingles.

Are you satisfied with the services provided by Luna Information Technologies?
We have been working with Luna Information Technologies for a long time and we are generally satisfied with their services. The fast and uninterrupted support of Luna Information Technologies is critical for our business, especially in the supply of industrial-type technology products that our companies need, and in the maintenance/repair activities of the products supplied in the field.

Finally, we provided the industrial mobile smart terminals, which we made available to our sales teams in our stores, through Luna Information Technologies, and we implemented our project without any problems in the import/installation/commissioning processes.

Can you tell us about your plans and goals for the future?
The retail industry is undergoing a very serious transformation in the world, and in parallel in our country. Over the past few years, we’ve talked about the importance of omnichannel retailing. Now, thanks to the changing lifestyles and customer demands with digitalization, multi-channel retail is leaving its place to “All-line” setups where all channels live together and uninterrupted transitions between channels are mandatory. Boyner Group managed to increase its e-commerce sales revenues by 60% in 2016, thanks to its pioneering role in the retail sector and its belief in innovation. Thanks to the CRM-technology investments we have implemented and innovative applications such as Hopi, we are expanding our digitalization, and we continue our efforts to be with our customers whenever and wherever they want and to meet all their needs. We will continue these investments and innovative practices with our understanding of “Unconditional Customer Happiness” in 2017 and beyond.