BILLA has strengthened its role as a frontrunner in the online field: "With the opening of the first Austrian Food Fulfillment Center - which, with manual individual commissioning, supervises only online orders - we will begin a new chapter in the history of Austrian food services and our company," said BILLA director Josef Siess on the occasion of the official opening of the FCC. About 90 new jobs were created (50 up until the half year and a futher 40 until the end of the year), the dimensions are built towards further growth in the online field.
The FFC commenced operations in Mid-May and is now centralising the work of seven individual stores in and around Vienna: the entirety of all activities, starting at the reception of the order, via manual commissioning and lastly the delivery of the products (five times a day) in a guaranteed time frame, which is limited to about two hours. The limited time frame makes it easier for customers to be available to receive the package in a busy day-to-day life. "With this development, we again proved to be the pioneer in terms of freshness of the products, speed and reliability in service and delivery in online food services."
Outside of Billa FFC
BILLA focuses on growth through premium quality
"We weren't just the first to focus on online trade, we also are the best at it. The FFC is just the logical consequence to optimize our overall service for our customers," says BILLA board-member Robert Nagele. In 2016, BILLA experienced a growth of 160% in online sales; the growing demand and volumes that had to be moved were too large to be handled in any other way. To accomodate this growth and the expected growth in the future, the FFC was built. On 7.250 m² there is enough room to make a wider range of available products and have more in stock.
FFC: "Personal Shopper" and modern technology
Premium quality is much more difficult to uphold for foodstuff industries than for example books, shoes or fashion. "Over half of our products that can be ordered online are fresh, we are the champions league of e-commerce," says Josef Siess. Therefore customers expect the same, great quality that we offer in the stores. Even for sensitive products such as berries, frozen products or baked goods. The selection in the online shop resembles the variety we offer in-store. The whole range of about 8.000 products is available and divided in three cooling zones (room temperature, refrigerated and frozen), which have to be upheld through all of the logistic process. All the standard for quality and hygiene are the same as in the store.
The FFC combines the best of both worlds: the analog and the digital. The employees act as the substitute of the customer, basically a "personal shopper": Every order is handled by well trained employees, baked goods are baked freshly, meat and ham are cut to order, fruit and vegetables with the ideal ripeness are picked etc.. It doesn't matter if companies order drinks and food for meetings, day care centers and schools order vegetables for healthy snacks, or private customers order for their personal needs and households.
These processes are supported by modern technology: "The FFC is stocked with state-of-the-art technology. We work, among other, with innovative logistics apps that help to inspect the orders for completion and then correctly load them", says Julia Stone, head of the unit "Digital & Innovation" at BILLA.
BILLA director Robert Nagele, director of REWE International AG Frank Hensel, head of "Digital & Innovations" Julia Stone, BILLA director Josef Siess, at the new BILLA FFC
Focus on the needs of customers in all walks of life
"It is our goal to make the life of our customers easier in any day-to-day situation, with a combined effort of individually combined, in store and online shopping options," says BILLA director Robert Nagele. This is possible because of the 18.400 employees in more than 1.050 stores, the 24-hour online shop with a nationwide delivery system of all Austrian postale codes, and the FFC. For the future, the directors name one big challenge: "We don't know which ideas in the food industry will catch on. It is our goal for the future to find all these ideas and offer them to our customers to improve the quality of their lives."
Source: Rewe-Group.at