The Concept Store
Called "The Concept Store" by Pão de Açúcar, the new unit is inside Shopping Iguatemi, in the Jardins neighborhood in São Paulo.
Zollie's Success Case that also became Microsoft's Brazilian Success Case for the use of WPF - Windows Presentation Foundation and the new MS Expression Studio suite of tools for the development of Rich Interactive Applications (RIA) applications.
The whole interface was created and developed by our artisans improving the User Experience.
In addition to using WPF as part of the foundations of the new Windows Vista and the .Net Framework 3.0 (also available for Windows XP SP2), the following Microsoft tools were also used:
- MS Expression Studio - for Interface development
- SQL 2005 - for database
- Visual Studio 2005 - for development
- Windows Mobile - for kiosks and smart carts
- Windows Embedded - for kiosks
Wine kiosk
All wine bottles have an RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) label.
Simply by approaching one or more bottles, the customer has instant access to more information about the wine (label, description, type of grape, oenological characteristics, food pairing, etc).
With the use of a "Carousel" navigation and a touch screen, the customer can search for other Wines by Price Range, Country of Origin or search by Type of Cuisine. Up to five wines can be viewed simultaneously, and simply drag to compare them.
There are 365 different labels, to the delight of winemakers.
Price Tags
The product shelves have electronic price tags with digital display that can be upgraded remotely from a central server without the need to re-tag each product when there is a price change.
Digital Scale
Atemoya, Kumquat and Sweet granadilla are not exactly brand new products. They are fruits that are on the menu of the "Exotic fruits Scale".
It weighs goods like any other, but also offers recipes with these and other different fruits.
In front of a plasma TV, the customer chooses the recipe and it is printed on time. It can be a simple Barbados Cherry mousse with white chocolate or a Jenipapo candy.
Recipes's Kiosk
At the kiosk, the user can enter the name of an item they are looking for and discover recipes that goes with this item and other related information. They can print and take the recipe home to taste.
Here are some interface screens developed by Zollie.
Product Search by Bar Code
The old bar code reader for price consultation has been replaced with a touch-screen showing product information. At any Kiosk, simply zoom in on the product barcode to see the Product Name, Description and Price updated.
Check-out
New features have also been implemented at checkout.
The carton mats are able to read RFID tags and bar codes from items even when they are on the move, which streamlines payment.
At the counter of each check-out, two monitors, one facing the cashier and another for the consumer. The cashier machines are operated via touch screen features on the monitor.
According to Pão de Açúcar, this improvement accelerated the service time by 30%.
Smart Carts
One of the store features is the use of PSA Carts (Personal Shopper Assistant).
The carts have navigation feature which helps the user locate himself within the store and quickly find the products they are looking for.
The PSA computes the items added to the cart, allowing the consumer to predict the total value of their purchase.
Architecture
In addition to IT resources, the store chose different architecture from other Supermarkets with shelves arranged in diagonal, and the materials used on the floor created a futuristic vibe.
Testimonials
She works at the mall and said she was eager to see how the market would look after more than two months of work:
I'm delighted, I found it very cool. I printed the recipes for strawberry mousse and pineapple pudding, which my husband loves Vanessa Banciela - age 25, Hairdresser
This computer helps a lot. Sometimes, we want to give a dinner and do not know the drink that accompanies better. Mônica Garcia - age 29, housewife
Her sister also approved:
It's worthy of a Iguatemi Shop Gilmara - age 33
Partnerships
GEMCO participated in the Pão de Açúcar's Concept Store Project with the supply of RFID hardware and the development of Smart Cart solutions and Price Labels, the IBM with the provision of Kiosk Hardware, the WebFoundations with project management, and Microsoft with the software used in the development of all the Kiosks Interfaces developed by Zollie.
The entire project was developed in less than 6 months and involved dozens of people from various disciplines to complete the most daring and innovative project of the Pão de Açúcar.