A CUSTOMER-CENTRIC TECH AND DATA TRANSFORMATION
PROJECT PARTNERS
A customer-centric tech and data transformation We speak to the senior leadership team in charge of Carrefour’s digital transformation to see how the global retail giant is transforming its technology on a massive scale as it evolves into a truly customercentric enterprise... Written by
Andrew Woods
Produced by
Andy Lloyd
Carrefo u r
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T
here are few enterprises with a heritage and scale enjoyed by Carrefour. The 62-year-old
global grocery and retail giant is undergoing enormous change across its numerous territories and grocery formats, and not before time. Sitting, as it does, at a pivotal moment in its history, Carrefour is facing, and meeting, the challenges of
W AT C H > > G l o b a l CT D O , Miguel Ángel González Gisbert talks about the dramatic tech and data changes at retail giant Carrefour as it evolves into a truly customer-centric enterprise...
size and legacy as it leverages tech and data to transform into a company ready for the challenges ahead. As online shopping reconfigured the very notion of retail during the early noughties, the writing was on the wall for businesses of every size: adapt or die. But change, although essential, is often feared, resisted or considered politically
like Latin America, Asia, Middle East and
unpalatable to many business leaders
North Africa, aside from mainland Europe.
Nevertheless, the situation remains the
Carrefour operations in Brazil and Spain
same. Adapt or die.
are for instance equivalent to those of
Carrefour is a huge global company
a €10bn+ retailer each. The company is
and the largest retailer in Europe with
France’s largest private employer and
a name that carries an almost subcon-
represents almost half of the overall busi-
scious meaning to those who have grown
ness. Today, Carrefour serves 104 million
up with the brand. It was Carrefour that
household customers in making 4 billion
introduced France to the hypermarket
transactions annually.
concept way back in 1963 when it opened
Carrefour has embraced a widespread
its first megastore in Sainte-Geneviève-
ongoing transformation, as the retail land-
des-Bois. Carrefour today is a massive
scape experiences monumental shifts
enterprise with 320,000+ employees
in behaviour. And the person Carrefour
worldwide, in 12,000+ stores present
looked to, to deliver this incredible
in over 30 countries including locations
programme of change, was the then rather
Carrefo u r
youthful 45-year-old Alexandre Bompard
partners. Every year, more than €1 billion
who joined the Group as Chairman and
is dedicated to technology, including the
CEO in July 2017. Bompard has a proven
development of its digital and omnichan-
track record in delivering change having
nel operations, with the view to achiev-
been at the helm of French retail chain
ing €4.2bn in food e-commerce GMV
Fnac-Darty. Bompard’s “Carrefour 2022”
in 2022. Carrefour also aims to include
transformation plan “embodies the goal
the streamlining of its organisational
of bringing eating well – healthy, fresh,
structure to make it more agile, while
organic, local food – to within everyone’s
also achieving gains in productivity and
reach”, said Bompard upon its launch. “To
competitiveness. The final tenet of this
become the world leader in the food tran-
strategy is the overhauling of Carrefour’s
sition for everyone”.
food offering with a greater emphasis
Strategy is formulated at a global level,
placed on quality and sustainability. The
overseeing a technology function that
overarching objective of Carrefour 2022
employs more than 4,000 people inter-
is to deliver a much-needed refresh to
nally notwithstanding contractors and
this historical, global company. www.theinterface.net
5
Besides Bompard’s strategy, the other
Transformation. Perthuisot oversees a
driving force has been Rami Baitieh’s
team consisting of Valérie Legat (Global
“5-5-5” philosophy, which has been
Head of Omnichannel Experience and
fostering great change in Carrefour.
Carrefour.fr Product Lead), Marina Fajardo
Baitieh, Executive Director for France
(Global Head of E-commerce Strategy),
since July 2020, has defined and put into
Selma Bekhechi (Global Digital and
practice a set of principles called the
E-commerce Acceleration Director) and
5-5-5, a set of concrete actions to better
Hervé Simonin (Global New Businesses
serve customers. The 5-5-5 allows each
and Partnerships).
store to win over its customers by being
Elodie Perthuisot’s teams have a global
constantly attentive to their needs and
mission to accelerate the digital trans-
demands. Consumers are placed at the
formation. “We are experiencing a very
centre of the actions of all employees,
unique moment of change in digital, and
from the store to the HQ. .
the team is working really hard to speed
In an effort to get things moving quickly,
up the game-changing projects we have
right after his appointment to his new posi-
launched, confirming our leadership in
tion, Baitieh published his email address
e-commerce, making the most of our data
on the company’s website to encourage
and putting transformative technologies at
customers to write to him. Shortly after,
the service of our customers.
store directors did the same. Baitieh
“For instance, in France, we have the
also set up internal WhatsApp loops to
ambition to enable over 2 000 proxim-
make sure all customer concerns were
ity e-commerce touchpoints (stores and
taken care of - in record time. Baitieh has
click & collect) by the end of 2021 and
established a new mindset that has been
we will multiply x10 the number of towns
spreading in all Carrefour geographies, for
covered by home delivery vs 2019, from
the past couple of years.
35 to 336,” she says.
Bompard has established a talented
“We will continue democratising
team to deliver on his ambitions. This is
access to data for our more than 300 000
particularly true when it comes to digi-
employees, while developing analytics
tal transformation: Elodie Perthuisot has
solutions at the service of our business,
just replaced Amélie Oudéa Castéra
for instance providing hundreds of our
in March 2021 as Executive Director In
category managers with real-time view
Charge of E-commerce, Data and Digital
and insights on assortment, product and
Carrefo u r
Elo die Per t huis ot E xe c uti ve D i re c to r E - C o m merc e, Data an d D i gi tal Tran sfo r mat i on
www.theinterface.net
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Global Head of E-commerce Strategy
Carrefour’s marketplace journey & ambitions
2025 2020
20,000 sellers & 18 million marketplace products available globally
8,000+ sellers & 7M marketplace products available globally France marketplace launched
2019 2017
Brazil marketplace launched
Spain marketplace launched
pricing. Data has become a core compe-
are pretty unique and distinctly local. It is
tence in Carrefour, at the same level as our
González’s job as Global CTDO to create
ability to develop exceptional people, have
synergy across the local tech and data
the best merchandise or manage supply
teams while making sure that the funda-
chain flows effectively and efficiently.
mental transformations Carrefour needs,
“And we will continue evolving to embed smart tech in our processes. The potential is huge and we have been catching up very
happen, starting with the enablement of customer centricity. He cites an example where the tech
fast during the last two years, with tech
team in Brazil, say, could be working on
creating strong competitive advantages,
a similar food traceability project to one
for instance with our move2cloud, that
in Spain, but where the CIOs concerned
reduces by two the time to develop new
might not be actually aware of each other’s
digital applications.”
work. “They could obviously learn from
Completing Perthuisot’s team and
each other, so it’s really creating this
helping to lead this global effort is
conversation on the one hand, while on the
37-year-old Global CTDO, Miguel Ángel
other, keeping very close to the executive
González Gisbert, who joined Carrefour
direction and helping to accelerate the
in September 2019 following almost a
pace of the strategic transformation of this
decade of consultative work at McKinsey
company with an obsession on improving
& Company. “I know digital, but I also know
customers’ lives. My role as Global CTDO
how to translate strategic change impera-
is to orchestrate the technology and data
tives into technology and data, and make a
at a global level.”
little bit of the bridge between the CIO, the CDO and the other CxOs of the company,
Customer centricity / 5-5-5
which is what I did at McKinsey,” González
“Carrefour has initiated a deep cultural
explains. “And to some extent, it’s also a
revolution called the ‘5-5-5’, which iden-
bit of what I’m doing here in translating
tifies five customer-centric principles
an ambitious business transformation
across three themes: trust, service and
agenda into sound tech and data priorities
proximity. For example, ‘The customer is
and putting them into action, steering key
the most important person in your day,
projects.” Carrefour is a highly distributed company: the operations in each country Carrefo u r
Mig u el Á n g el Go n zález G is ber t G l o bal CTD O
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always tell them ‘Yes’. In other words,
“It is a very ambitious agenda, and my
every customer is unique and the satis-
mission is to put technology and data at
faction of every one of them has become
the service of the plan, and more broadly
an obsession at Carrefour. Indeed, just
at the service of our customers and the
in 2020 we saw our Net Promoter Score
5-5-5,” González explains. “This is true
(NPS) grow +20 points. Today the 5-5-5
across all technology and data layers:
is adopted by every BU in Carrefour, and
when it comes to offering a more delight-
it is perfectly clear to every one of our
ful customer experience in our online
employees - including my digital team -
platforms, implementing a performant
that the number one priority is to make our
e-supply and also bringing purpose-
customers happy,” Perthuisot explains.
ful technology to our stores, where we
Carrefo u r
that front,” Marina Fajardo Global Head of E-commerce Strategy at Carrefour explains. Three years ago, Carrefour was making a very small amount in e-commerce. “The plan here is to catch up and get to €4.2bn in food e-commerce GMV in 2022. Nonetheless, a great deal of the work has already been done. For example, in Brazil, we have increased our market share from 5% in 2018 to 18% today!” Jan Pollier is Carrefour’s Digital and E-commerce Director in Belgium. “I’m in charge of a team of product owners that are developing and operating our web platform, as well as the mobile app we recently renewed,” he says. Pollier is also in charge of the different digital touch points with the customer. Alexandre Bompard issued the clear instruction that Carrefour was to have only one e-commerce platform per country leverage datatech and algorithms to
in 2018 and Jan reminds us of the impor-
propose personalised journeys and more
tance of this moment. “Carrefour Belgium
fluid operations. And even when it comes
- as all the other countries - created ‘One
to our tech foundations, we see the
Carrefour’: a single digital portal consol-
power of the cloud to innovate fast and
idating both e-commerce and market-
deliver more services to our customers at
ing.”The website and the app are the
a reduced cost.”
visible side of e-commerce, the tip of the iceberg, however. Carrefour Belgium’s
Modernising e-commerce platforms
e-commerce operations - or e-supply-
Carrefour has some bold objectives
were running behind neighbouring coun-
around e-commerce. “We were late on
tries - and so they looked to Food-X, a www.theinterface.net
13
“ We are crafting a faster, easier and somehow gamified App experience. It will be the Trojan horse of our omnichannel strategy” — Va l é ri e Le gat P roduct Lead of France E- commerce an d G l ob al Head of Digita l and Omnichann e l E x per ien ce
Canadian tech boutique that specialises in
installation within a large Carrefour ware-
online grocery fulfilment.
house, enabled by the Food-X software.
“We were looking at the efficiency of our
“They helped us design the interior of
operations and more specifically the opti-
the warehouse that will be semi-auto-
misation of the preparation and transport
mated, with conveyor belts and light mech-
models,” Pollier explains. “We analysed
anisation,” Pollier beams. “It is about using
Food-X and came to the conclusion that it
software in a very smart way, making sure
was the most suited solution for Belgium.
the systems enable ultra-lean processes,
“Maple” [Carrefour codename for the
perfectly suited to the food business.”
project] is about putting in place a new
Food-X has 20 years of experience within
Carrefo u r
online groceries in Vancouver and are
last mile coverage, while improving the
specialists in sustainable production.
customer journey on the website. “This is
“They source a mainly organic assortment
the advantage of using an integrated fulfil-
and so they really have that knowledge of
ment specialist. For instance the system
fresh foods.”
is capable of adjusting delivery schedules
This project is broader than putting in
dynamically depending on the progress
place the new warehouse, with Carrefour
of the picking schedule,” Pollier explains.
Belgium intending to optimise the end-to-
This project clearly shows that the pace
end new business model. Project Maple
of Carrefour delivery has increased:
will also enhance Carrefour Belgium’s
“Delivering such a project in less than a www.theinterface.net
15
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Since 2020, Salesforce has helped Carrefour to transform its e-commerce capabilities in Italy. With Salesforce Commerce Cloud this has included serving a higher volume of customers and delivering support at scale. Building on this momentum, Carrefour is already launching similar acceleration initiatives in other markets in 2021 like Taiwan, reimagining the ways we shop and how companies and customers stay connected. With a 360 degree view of every customer Carrefour has become a true Trailblazer.
To find out more about how Salesforce puts the success of customers at the heart of everything they do, visit www.salesforce.com.
year is very rock and roll. But we need to
customers are coming to shop for and
do it because Covid-19 is raising the stand-
making them available and easy to access.
ards of e-commerce and we have great
When I say ‘personalised’, it means offer-
ambitions for e-grocery.”
ing different features depending on the
Back in France, where it all began, this
profile of the client, but also different fulfil-
e-commerce ambition is underlined by
ment services, like express delivery, which
Valérie Legat, in charge of carrefour.fr, the
is one of our key ambitions for 2021. The
5th largest e-commerce site in the coun-
last point is ‘omnichannel’. We have very
try. “I would say that currently, my focus
large ambitions around the mobile app. We
is to help our customers simplify their
want our clients to have Carrefour in their
shopping journey on our website, and
pocket through their mobile app.”
make it personalised and omnichannel,” she explains “And when I say, for exam-
In-store innovation
ple, ‘simplify’, it means deploying all the
However, ‘omnichannel’ also means
algorithms we have developed in our data
putting technology at the service of the
lab to predict what kind of products our
stores. Hervé Simonin has been working
Carrefo u r
hard to change gear on this specific dimension. He oversees new businesses
“ We are working really hard to deliver a muchneeded refresh to this historical, global company to put technology and data at the service of the business” — M i g u e l Án g e l G onzá lez G i sber t G l o b al CT DO
for the Group and for Carrefour France. This means not only leading the best portfolio of food e-commerce startups in France - including Greenweez, Dejbox, Quitoque, Potager City and Croquetteland - but also increasing the pace of change joining forces with tech start-ups like AiFi, that provide services on retail store automation. So far, this has proven to be a challenging task. “As the organisation of Carrefour is international and multi-format, it is difficult to provide guidelines and assistance for this digital transformation while identifying the right technological choices to significantly reduce, on the one hand the heterogeneity of the solutions in the store and in a manner its obsolescence. But it
Carrefour 2022: What does that look like?
is central that we manage to do it. This is precisely one of the roles of the Group: promoting a better sharing of information throughout the company,” he reveals. “For example, there are about 70,000 tills in the shops across the Group with software that dates from several decades ago that is maintained by a heterogeneous set of tech companies. This creates a problem for a digital transformation as you need to be able to roll out new capabilities like payment, geolocation or fraud reduction quickly. Even if you come up with the www.theinterface.net
19
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30%* time-saving when picking e-commerce orders with Instant Flash and optimized route planning
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Trusted Innovation Drives Store Digitalization For over 20 years Pricer has been a key partner to Carrefour for store digitalization. Pricer is also the preferred worldwide supplier of electronic shelf labels to the retail group. For decades the company has worked closely together with leading retailers around the world, spearheading the retail evolution through constant innovation.
Carrefour’s strategy is based on using advanced digitalization to enhance store efficiency and customer experience in all their store formats • Driving efficiency for Click and Collect and replenishment – using instant flash and geolocation provides visibility up and down the aisle for efficient replenishment, promo-flash, pick-to-light and waste management • Providing real-time shelf edge information with store management data – such as minimal stock, replenishment day, average sales or product’s EAN. • Price optimization/dynamic pricing and immediate enhanced product information – execute extensive price optimization, enhancing the potential profit and reducing customer confusion while delivering enhanced information to consumers. • Waste management – make date checking efficient and ensure expiring products are sold at an optimal price before they go to waste.
“As a trusted partner for in-store digitalization and automation, Pricer works closely with leading retailers such as Carrefour in all parts of the world. The solutions are unique, robust and highly scalable to meet the specific challenges of each retailer” Helena Holmgren, CEO of Pricer
Leading the future of retail Pricer’s evolution to an integrated cloud-based solution is making it ever easier to analyze the shelf, product, and campaign performance and consumer buying behaviour. Pricer delivers a key ever-developing platform for leading retailers to continually deliver dramatically improved store efficiency and new levels of customer engagement.
best idea for a new service, the moment
“There is a fair amount of innovation going
you are confronted with, and come up
on there. We are leveraging the strong
against, these stumbling blocks of hetero-
expertise of Spain in this area, where
geneity and obsolescence, they are going
rockstars like José Antonio, Marian, Javier
to slow you down. But we are pushing hard
and Esther managed to develop one of the
to simplify.”
best Point of Sale (PoS) software suites
The strategy here is everything but turn-
in the Spanish market,” González, CTDO
ing the store into a collection of expensive
explains “And my colleague Laurence
tech gadgets: Carrefour wants to put tech-
Azagoh is doing a wonderful job scal-
nology at the service of operational excel-
ing-up these local capabilities to make
lence on the ground, in perfect connection
them global so other countries can take
with the 5-5-5 agenda and the need to
advantage of them. We will hopefully have
delight customers every day.
store systems that are better connected
Nicolas Safis is the Group Innovation Director, and is bringing this mindset of customer-centricity into play, when it comes to turning prospective ideas into practical realities. “I think what’s important at Carrefour is that the tech and data transformation - especially when we talk about our stores - simplifies the life of our customers regarding touchpoints and fluidity and also our associates as we would not be able to provide our customers with the best service possible without ensuring that our collaborators have the right conditions, tools and processes required to do so.” Today, the majority of Carrefour’s sales continue to happen in-store, and the Group sees a tech landscape that simplifies cashiers day-to-day tasks while aiming for a more omnichannel operation. Carrefo u r
to the rest of the Carrefour information
system so we can have more consistent
three distinct areas. Yann Barraud, Global
data across digital and physical chan-
CDO explains: “The first area is to use
nels. We also intend to make it easier to
our data to propose more personalized
provide a seamless experience between
and fluid customer experiences online
e-commerce and store, such as complet-
and offline, before, during and after their
ing online baskets in store. And, finally, a
shopping journey.” This is why Carrefour
platform that is multi-device, that enables
opened a data lab in partnership with
the till, but also the non-food vendor or
Google three years ago. Carrefour
even the store manager. It is what we call
data engineers have been working with
‘SmartPoS’,” he says.
Google AI experts to create together, new customer experiences. The lab’s
Datatech, Google and the cloud
Assortment Recommendation System
The entire transformation programme
is a great example - the algorithm identi-
pivots around a data strategy that covers
fies how to improve product offerings in
Mari án O rdu ñ a H errero Custo m e r Te c h So l uti o n s Direc to r i n Sp ai n
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Where some see uncertainty, we see possibilities As a digital business transformation partner of choice, we’ve spent nearly three decades utilizing the disruptive power of technology and ingenuity to help digitally enable our clients' business in their pursuit of next.
find out more
When the COVID-19 pandemic first struck in early 2020, Carrefour was ready with a scaled, high-performing grocery website that helped continue its critical role of feeding the French nation. Three years earlier, when Publicis Sapient helped Carrefour re-imagine their digital offering, we could never have predicted the impact of the pandemic. Nevertheless, by building a rigorous technical backbone, implementing new ways of working and re-imaging the customer experience, we created something that firmly withstood the challenge. The world was very different in 2017, when Publicis Sapient and Carrefour partnered together to define a new digital strategy for the grocery brand. Carrefour had a legacy of old technologies, a hierarchical structure and slow – and often late – IT delivery. Alexandre Bompard, Carrefour’s new CEO, set us a clear direction to use digital to regain its position as the number one grocer in France. “The real challenge was not about what we needed to change,” says Julian Skelly, Head of Retail at Publicis Sapient, “instead, it was about enabling the organisation to do it”. Publicis Sapient focused on transforming the organisation and, along the way, built a world-class website. As a first step, Bompard pulled his leadership team together into an intensive four-week ‘Ignite’ workshop series led by Publicis Sapient to build Carrefour’s digital strategy. Then, “armed with a clear vision of what needed to be done, we rapidly re-organised Carrefour Digital,” Skelly explains. “We addressed the tendency to operate in silos, by pulling everyone together into a single Digital Hub.” This Hub continues today and has over 250
cross-discipline people, working together in a scaled-agile model. Unifying people was absolutely key. So, right from the start, Publicis Sapient made sure this was a truly collaborative process by jointly creating a strong and clear vision. We brought the voice of the customer into the process and then aligned everyone around real customer needs. “We maintained this customer-centric approach throughout the delivery,” says Skelly, “by setting up guerrilla research teams that could answer questions and provide insights in a matter of days.” Publicis Sapient then shifted focus from being a strategic advisor to a delivery partner, building the Carrefour organisation to deliver its new digital strategy. Publicis Sapient designed the delivery framework and added about 90 digital experts into the Carrefour teams to work side-by-side with them. Publicis Sapient’s objective was to help Carrefour change by building a new culture and ways of working in the Hub from the start. “Publicis Sapient’s real success was enabling Carrefour to operate itself,” Skelly says. “When the pandemic came, Carrefour had the tools and capabilities to pivot. Without these, Carrefour would not have been able to cope with the challenges of COVID and probably would have lost all their online customers.” “When we launched the new website in 2018, we achieved what we thought was unachievable” says Olivier Gibert, former e-commerce lead architect. “Now, three years later, the new agile ways of working are fully bedded in”.
N i co l as S af i s G ro u p I nn ovat ion Director Carrefo u r
each store. This system delivers a personalised in-store product selection: it is active in +150 stores in Paris, recommending over a hundred products to each store every month. “The second area is to use our data to better operate our own machinery, our shops and warehouses to execute more effectively and reduce actual costs. For instance, our lab has been leading the charge in automating reporting and various BI [Business Intelligence] tools which has proven a tremendous time saver for HQ and operational staff allowing them to focus on value added tasks,” Barraud adds. At this very moment, the lab is preparing to put into production, a Daily Order Forecasting model for e-commerce activity to ensure better staff planning in preparation facilities. “The third area is focused less on the internal needs of Carrefour and more on the needs of our industrial partners (CPG companies) where our strategy is to develop an open ecosystem in which Carrefour data is a solution for our growth and helps us identify areas of development in their different lines of business,” says Barraud, adding: “This is the purpose of DataShopper, a data platform designed to offer advanced KPIs about shoppers’ behaviour. Our partners get advanced insights allowing them to interact more effectively with customers, making their experience more pleasant and faster. This platform has been built using 100% cloud-native solutions, such as Looker, a next-gen cloud analytics tool, and BigQuery, Google’s cloud data warehouse.” Within DataShopper, Carrefour is building a 360, omnichannel view across all its geographies, in near real time, representing 50 petabytes of data processed each month, strictly respecting regulatory and data privacy and security requirements. www.theinterface.net
27
The team built this platform in a few weeks, and went from 0 to general availability in less than 6 months. As Global Chief Data Officer, Yann is not only a tech partner to business when it comes to data, but also the person that helped to accelerate Carrefour’s move2cloud program. Such a dual role was deliberate. “In Carrefour, we do data in the cloud by default. It enables better time to market, it is more scalable and we get access to more innovative services. It is also cheaper. Data is such a fundamental part of Carrefour’s plans and so it was important to get a partner (Google) very expert in that field. I don’t know any other data warehouse solution in the market capable of bringing the level of performance of BigQuery at that price.” “Besides defining the data strategy and supporting countries in the execution, I have the chance to contribute to the delivery of several data projects with the potential to generate a serious performance shift for Carrefour,” Barraud explains. Carrefour has implemented a new big data platform, Eagle, which is 100% cloud-based, to equip all their geographies. The first use case built on top of this platform was completed in Carrefour Romania. Eagle enables them to better understand their customers and to better serve them: the platform gathers a large volume of receipts (approximately 550k a day) allowing Romanian marketing experts to analyse the ticket contents for any combination of stores, dates and customers. This means that in Romania, they can now identify segments of customers at a store-level, whether they are “promo hunters”, “early adopters”, “premium” or “impulsive buyers”. Any major digital transformation, and they come no bigger than Carrefour, requires a solid technological infrastructure upon which the company can evolve at pace. Carrefo u r
Yan n B ar ra ud G l o bal C h i ef Data Offi c e r www.theinterface.net
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•
•
Google Cloud
•
IN 2018 CARREFOUR, the largest retailer in Europe, had defined a 2022 Strategic plan, based on four pillars; Streamlining the organizational structure to make it more agile, without losing sight of its end customers, Achieving gains in productivity and competitiveness, Creating a leading omnichannel ecosystem uniting stores and ecommerce and Overhauling its food offering with an emphasis placed on greater quality. Carrefour sought a cloud solution that cou Id empower this strategic plan and so it needed a key partner. Retail is one of Google Cloud's top priority verticals and it's only natural for Google Cloud to be implemented to enable Carrefour's transformation journey. Google Cloud allows Carrefour to leverage its Data Analytics experience, its best-in-class artificial intelligence (Al) and machine learning (ML) expertise and engineering power.
•
"We are thrilled to contribute to Carrefour's tech & digital strategy. Our journey over the /ast 18 months has been impressive: Data has become a business for Carrefour, and it is the best journey we couId dream over for such a strategic Partner." Samuel Bonamigo
•
Carrefour's 2022 plan can be broken down into the need for agility, productivity and innovation. With Google, Carrefour can provide digital experiences during peak shopping periods without sacrificing performance or reliability, adopt Google Workspace to help employees collaborate efficiently during challenging periods and foster collaboration between Carrefour and Google's experts and engineers in a Google/Carrefour Lab to salve the biggest challenges and drive innovation throughout Carrefour.
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This is where cloud plays a major role. “Back in 2018, the company had no clear
us in our scalability and performance - for instance our ability to absorb the traffic
position about cloud and more specifically
peaks during the first Covid-19 lockdown
public cloud,” Yann reveals “End 2019, the
- and how easy and integrated security
strategy became clearer, and extremely
and monitoring were and that the shift
simple: We were targeting ‘public cloud
was bringing tangible financial benefits,”
first’, moving away from traditional data
adds Barraud. For example, closing two
centres. Back in 2018, his strategy was
data centres in France in 2019 generated
accelerated by the signature of our part-
considerable savings.
nership with Google.” Hence, the company
Using cloud-based solutions also
shifted and became more aggressive on
allowed Carrefour to gain momentum.
its cloud migration, evolving from less
For instance, the company developed
than 5% of apps in the public cloud to 25%
and deployed, in only 6 days, a new
at the end of 2020. This bold movement
e-commerce channel during the first
towards the cloud is also motivated by the
COVID pandemic - “Les Essentiels”.
willingness to increase the pace of innova-
This would have been barely possible
tion, which is today happening in the cloud
with a traditional toolset.
by default. For example, the emergence of
Once those benefits were made clear
“no code” solutions, like AppSheet, allow-
and accepted, the countries started accel-
ing anyone to build applications in minutes.
erating their journey to the public cloud.
For instance, Carrefour on-site mainte-
For example, in Poland, in 2020, 10 apps
nance teams recently built a simple appli-
were shifted to public cloud. In 2021, the
cation to plan interventions and generate
target is multiplied by three, targeting
service reports.
more than 30 applications.
“Obviously, this did not come in a
“Google was interesting as a cloud
glimpse. As for every change, we had to be
partner, because, besides the strength
convinced that the cloud shift was benefi-
of GCP in data and software engineer-
cial for the Group. In addition to making it
ing, mid-2018 when the partnership
clear and simple, we also showed, based
with Google started, Google was still an
on facts, that the cloud was bringing multi-
emerging force in the cloud market, and
ple benefits besides innovation and speed,
this helped us to get a good balance from
at almost every level of the company. We
the very beginning,” González explains.
explained how cloud applications helped
“They bring a lot of expertise and scale www.theinterface.net
33
on technology and infrastructure and we
shares in the bricks and mortar world
bring a lot of expertise and scale on retail.
of retail including historical formats like
The move2cloud does not stop here. After
hyper, whilst at the same time signifi-
seeing the business value, we decided to
cantly increasing its online leadership
increase the level of ambition: we want to
with the ambition of becoming - in line
be a 100% cloud company in a few years.
with the vision of the Group - the respon-
This may seem normal nowadays, but it is
sible e-commerce leader, incorporating
in fact totally crazy when we consider the
the fields of sustainable development
starting point back in 2018.”
and social commitments specifically. This
Nicolas Forgues is the CTO of Carrefour
means, in the respect of environmen-
France and he further underlines the
tal resources, paying particular atten-
touchpoints of the global strategy, at
tion to everything that contributes to
a local level. “The strategic vision of
the reduction of our carbon footprint.
Carrefour France is to regain market
For example, Google has a very low
“ The strategic vision of Carrefour France is to regain market shares in the bricks and mortar world of retail, whilst at the same time significantly increasing its online leadership with the ambition of becoming the responsible e-commerce leader” — Nic o l a s Fo rgues Fra nce C hief Technology Officer
Carrefo u r
environmental impact with a PUE [Power
the company working very closely with
Usage Effectiveness, a ratio calculated
producers, supporting them to make it
by dividing the total of energy required
more sustainable while improving food
at the level of the data centre by the part
quality at a fair price. Carrefour wants
dedicated to computing only] of close
to be the leader in terms of the “food
to 1.1, hence lowering our own global
transition” that is happening across the
carbon footprint.”
globe - healthy, fresh, organic and local food - and tech is enabling this ever-in-
Sustainability through digital
creasing influence of Corporate Social
Sustainability is a very strong lever of
Responsibility (CSR). Bertrand Swiderski
Carrefour’s strategy. One of the central
is in charge of sustainability for the Group
ideas is to play a leadership role in
Carrefour. “It’s my role to drive the change
sustainable food consumption, as well
inside of our company, to drive our busi-
as food production. Basically, it will see
ness, to make sure that our business is
www.theinterface.net
35
sustainable enough. And it’s creating a win-win-win situation. It’s a win-situation for Carrefour, a win-situation for our consumer and a win-situation for our planet and for our society.” The CSR drive at Carrefour is driven by five priorities. “The first is that we have to increase the sale of organic products,” Swiderski explains. “The second is making sure our brand, the Carrefour brand, is healthy and responsible. The third one is to reduce food waste in our operation, and also to help consumers to reduce food waste. And then, we still have to work on reducing plastic, reducing packaging, and we’ve made a tremendous commitment to that. We want to reduce by 20,000 tonnes the quantity of packaging before 2022. And finally, we still have to work on sourcing and delivering local products.” Sustainability and tech are deeply linked on several of Carrefour’s projects. For instance, Carrefour has developed a strong partnership with Too Good To Go (TGTG) since 2019. Carrefour has helped to save ~2.5 millions of meals (i.e., 2 400+ tons of food) across Europe (France, Spain, Italy and Belgium) granting access to its customers to discounted baskets through the TGTG app. To make it happen, both store and warehouse staff are equipped with mobile devices to pinpoint products about to expire, constitute baskets and sell them. The company’s societal responsibility is also visible on its digital assets. For instance, during the mid-2020 lockdown, Carrefour decided to open its marketplace in France with Mirakl, granting free-of-charge access to small producers, micro enterprises and SMEs so they can reach their customers during the sanitary crisis, starting their e-commerce business and reaching Carrefour’s customers without any marketing effort. Carrefo u r
B er tran d Swin dersk i G l o bal He ad of Sustai n a b i l i t y
www.theinterface.net
37
Customer centricity at the core of technology
They will find a way to oversmart the
Of course, with increased digitalisation
solutions to help our business instead of
and the pools of sensitive data that will
being a blocker,” Amsel says.
be generated, at the scale of Carrefour’s
system. It is really important that we offer
Customer-centricity comes back again
transformation, there are always going
and again, even when it comes to the
to be increased risks of cyberattacks
deeper layers of the technology stack. The
and fraud.
ultimate proof can be found in support,
Laurent Amsel is the Global Chief
back-office heavy functions like finance.
Information Security Officer (CISO) at
Another major partner of Carrefour is SAP,
Carrefour. Although solid security meas-
which is conducting a huge major program
ures were in place before his appointment,
to modernise the backbone of Carrefour’s
he has been tasked with adding an added
financial operations.
protective layer around the new offerings
Finance at Carrefour is undergoing a
and operations that underpin the transfor-
major transformation, in part to provide
mation programme. “The more and more
vital real-time intelligence to support oper-
digital we become, the bigger the surface
ations. “We have to be sure it will benefit
area that’s exposed,” he explains. “That
the end customer too,” explains Claire
means there are more and more targets
Noel du Payrat, Group Financial Control
for any attackers. Without e-commerce,
Director at Carrefour. “OK, so we are a
there is no website to attack.”
support function and we will remain a
Carrefour has already started the trans-
support function, but operations need us,
formation of its cyber-security. Amsel
so they can be better at decision making.
leads an international community of CISOs
So, we provide them with the right deci-
that work together to share best practices
sions at the right moments through more,
on a local level while working together on
real time intelligence. And not only real time
global incidents. Infusing an agile mind-
information, but also the insights into how
set to this team of cyber experts, with-
to use it. If we want to improve decision
out losing on resilience, is key. “Unusable
making, we have to use this real time data,
security is NOT security. The point is that if
and so that’s why we have been utilising
our employees and our customers do not
SAP HANA, which gives us an appropriate
understand, do not adopt, do not embrace
configuration and structure of data, with
cybersecurity, the effort will be pointless.
the appropriate BI and additional tools.”
Carrefo u r
« In 2021, tech is already playing a key role for Carrefour, whether it is
for our digital services like live shopping, digital catalogs or automated assistants; our data, cloud services and in-store innovation.
CTDO at Carrefour
“Coffee [Carrefour’s codename for the
to track food product information, and
project] is a massive program of change,
has even extended its use to textiles,
unique in the sense that we are modernis-
with extraordinary rigour: “immutable”,
ing our financial and indirect procurement
“tamper-proof” and “secure” are just
core in 9 countries in less than two years,
some of the unique properties asso-
while at the same time standardising and
ciated with this technology. Garance
improving our processes and rules to work
Osternaud, in charge of Carrefour’s block-
better as a Group. It is an incredible ambi-
chain program, believes that “Customers
tion and a program that will lead to a signif-
demand more and more transparency. For
icant positive impact for Carrefour.”
them to trust us, we have decided to play
Besides security and finance, customer
an open game, granting them access to
centricity is also visible in Carrefour’s
certified information along the full value
product traceability efforts, such as
chain, from the producer to the proces-
Walmart in the US, where Carrefour has
sor and from the farm to the fork. Thanks
been pioneering the usage of blockchain
to blockchain, customers can know the www.theinterface.net
39
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farmer that harvested their tomato, get
network with Banco Carrefour. The
the proof it was grown with no herbicides,
transformation is accelerated further
locate the farm to check the origin and
with Carrefour’s acquisition of Grupo
track precisely delivery dates at the level
BIG, Brazil’s third-biggest food retailer,
of each individual lot. We have already
strengthening Carrefour presence there.
blockchained 37 quality
This was the largest acquisition since
lines in 7 countries. The
Alexandre Bompard’s arrival and the
point is that we do not do
transaction prices Grupo BIG at an enter-
blockchain because it
prise value of approximately €1 billion.
is trendy or technologi-
By combining both Carrefour Brazil and
cally cool, but because it
Grupo BIG, Carrefour Brazil has gross
provides perfect visibil-
sales of about R$100bn (€15bn), operates
ity and assurance to our
more than 700 stores and employs around
customers.”
137,000 people. Overseeing the digital transformation
A programme of global change
of the retail segment of Carrefour in Brazil
It is clear through the
of the challenges faced by the Group. “So,
multiple examples that
Carrefour Brazil is a 45-year-old company
the tech transformation
and it faces many challenges in reinvent-
of the company is truly
ing itself,” he says. “The tech roadmap is
global. All Carrefour
based on joining the physical and digi-
is CIO Paulo Farroco, who outlines some
countries and business lines - physical
tal stores together, and delivering that
stores, e-commerce, retail, financial -
omnichannel experience to our custom-
are contributing to a coordinated wave
ers. We really want to be a company where
of change, with different flavours and
the customer is at the centre of all our
unique ideas coming together around
decisions. Carrefour Brazil is launching its
common principles and vision.
new e-commerce platform on Carrefour.
The global character of the transfor-
com.br, developed by the e-commerce
mation is really visible in Brazil, where
software company VTEX, and which aims
Carrefour operates three major busi-
to achieve positive impacts across the
nesses: traditional retail, wholesale with
business. High-level levels of performance
Atacadão and a strong financial services
are expected in order management, www.theinterface.net
41
There's magic in the air. Or maybe it's just business and tech getting along.
� commerce platform helps you find the harmony between business and technology, linking the different parts of your commerce operation.
vtex.com
vendors’ marketplace powered by Mirakl, and omnichannel services that connect
than satisfying customers. In 2019, Roberto Müssnich, the CEO
the online operation to its bricks-and-mor-
for Atacadão, met CotaBest’s founders
tar stores. The new digital platform will be
Vanderlei Junior and Fernando Coutinho
the basis to scale and evolve the business
to explore if CotaBest - which offered
in the short and long term as Carrefour
an open-ended B2B grocery market-
Brazil gains the same level of maturity as
place service at that time - could include
markets where e-commerce operations,
Atacadão as one of its vendors. CotaBest
especially food, are very mature, as in
has an astonishing origin starting out
European countries.”
as a simple restaurant. The co-found-
Back in 2007, Carrefour acquired
ers noticed it was particularly complex
Atacadão, which became the cash & carry
for them to analyse and compare the
business unit of Carrefour Brazil. 15 years
offerings coming from the different food
later, there is strong evidence that this
providers of their restaurant. That is why,
move was a very good strategic decision
Junior and Coutinho created an online
at that time, as it enabled Carrefour to
platform to aggregate, simply and quickly,
diversify the type of formats available for
the various offers. And it proved to be
their customers in Brazil. Since the acqui-
a great success when they opened the
sition, Atacadão has represented a major
service to other restaurants.
growth accelerator for Carrefour in Brazil.
When Roberto Müssnich met with
Many of the customers of Atacadão are
them, they all realised something much
B2B customers (like hotels, restaurants
bigger could be done together. Müssnich
or smaller distributors). Another singular-
decided that Atacadão should invest
ity of Atacadão is its strong culture. The
in CotaBest. CotaBest and Atacadão
company encourages commitment, obli-
became partners and together explored
gation to speak up and drive and strives
the opportunity of building Atacadão’s
in permanence to develop its talents.
e-commerce platform (despite the huge
Simplicity and transparency are also core
success of the company, its digital pres-
values of the company, that works hard
ence was very limited until 2020) and
every day to remain customer focused,
sophisticating the B2B marketplace, in
with a business model that is “no frills” and
particular in its ability to compare prices
an approach of service that is extremely
coming from different vendors “That’s
humble and low profile, with no other goal
the most interesting part, where you
Carrefo u r
L au rent A m s e l G l o bal C h i ef I nfo r mat i on Se c uri ty Offi c er
can choose between them,” Coutinho
are a lot of opportunities for new play-
explains. “That is quite a novelty for this
ers, for instance in the field of means of
market and, at the end, creates significant
payment, critical to ensure the frequency
value for customers. And for us having a
of the retail relationship. At this point, it’s a
new e-commerce and marketplace plat-
very hot market to be in,” Mauad explains.
form is really powerful.”
“And we’re still growing that because
Carlos Mauad has been CEO of
we have the advantage of being inte-
Carrefour Bank, in Brazil since January
grated in a huge ecosystem here, which
2019. Mauad’s mandate included running
is Carrefour and Atacadão. For exam-
a digital transformation on the entire
ple, the ‘APAG’ (Atacadão Pagamentos)
company. “We pretty much redesigned
project has initiated synergies between
the entire company in terms of work
Carrefour bank and Atacadão’s in propos-
dynamics to make sure we could play
ing payment terminals for Atacadao’s B2B
in this highly competitive arena which
customers that we distribute in our stores.
is Brazil,” he explains. “We have a very
On top of that, we will offer banking
concentrated banking market, so there
services to store customers that do not www.theinterface.net
45
have a credit card yet. In this project, our aim to become a sub-acquirer is an important lever in our diversification.”
New mindsets and behaviours A commonly cited challenge to a transformation of any kind and scale is the establishment of a positive and productive mentality among the workers delivering, and adopting, the new practices and tools. At Carrefour, that challenge addresses a tech team of over 4,000 and hundreds of data professionals across the Group. Carrefour’s transformation is a meld of in-house expertise and partnerships going
H er vé S im o n i n
back to 2018, when Publicis Sapient and
G l o bal H e a d of N ew B us i ness e s
Carrefour joined forces to define a new e-commerce tech strategy, harnessing digital to regain its leadership in grocery
And it needed to be done in a matter of
in France by enabling more efficient and
months. Selecting Salesforce Commerce
productive ways of working. And speed
Cloud allowed Carrefour to constrict the
is of the essence as the clock is well and
implementation duration (in less than one
truly ticking with 2022 as the deadline, set
year!) without any compromise on busi-
back in 2018, for delivering Carrefour’s
ness features. The same approach was
transformation programme.
chosen for Carrefour Italy (Salesforce)
Speed is also a key challenge Carrefour
but also Brazil and Argentina, with the
Taiwan had to face when COVID crisis
only difference of leveraging VTEX, a
struck, at the beginning of 2020. Due
LatAm pure player.
to high traffic peaks, Taiwan’s histori-
Mindsets and behaviours are evolving
cal e-commerce platform was unable to
in local tech operations, but also for the
scale enough. Moving to a more respon-
Group function. The role of the Group is
sive and agile platform was the challenge.
to serve the countries, and not the other
Carrefo u r
Carrefour wants an IT and data departments at the service of the business, be it e-commerce or stores, merchandising or supply, finance or HR. “I think this kind of change requires more than ever a spirit of servant leadership,” González, CTDO explains. “We are inverting the pyramid. I exist to serve my tech and data colleagues in countries, so then they can better serve our customers. I am here to listen to them and create the best conditions so they can do their jobs better.” An example of this is the effort made by the Group to provide cost transparency across a series of mutualised IT services like infrastructure or digital workplace. End 2019, the Group received a lot of feedback from countries about their need to have more information and explanation way round. This is in line with the “inverted
about the set of set of globally mutualised
pyramid” principle that is becoming
tech services. Thus, the Group decided to
mainstream across the company: senior
clarify the mechanisms for making these
managers serving their managers and
costs visible with a double objective: to
managers serving in turn their associ-
give full transparency to countries, but
ates, whose only mission is to serve the
also to make them fully accountable on the
customers to make them happy. This is
responsible consumption of the mutual-
very different from a very traditional organ-
ised services.
isation where orders come top-down. In
Thibaud Cainne, Global Head of Tech
the new Carrefour, the customer is the
Governance, gives another example of the
boss, and the organisation is changing to
changes done to simplify the management
become responsive to these requests.
of the technology function. “Reporting on
The technology function and the data
country tech project portfolios and invest-
function at Carrefour are no different:
ment committees to approve IT projects www.theinterface.net
47
were somewhat cumbersome in the past.
Carrefour’s digital retail blog to share its
In order to reduce complexity of these
initiatives in e-commerce, data, digital
processes, we decided to split work with
in-store, tech and sustainability, world-
countries in two: We maintained strong
wide. “Our colleagues from all over the
instruction on large projects and made
world are proud to share their experi-
countries more accountable on the rest,
ences and their projects on Horizons. We
what we call ‘tactical envelopes’, while
are receiving very positive feedback from
maintaining global visibility on the budg-
both employees and digital profession-
ets and strategic areas of change with a
als that visit our blog on a regular basis!
semi-automated global tech dashboard.”
It is a great way to communicate about
This approach makes it possible to answer
Carrefour’s digital transformation while
both the need of agility to countries and
getting all of our countries onboard,” says
the need to maintain strict strategic direc-
Zoe Bordelon, project manager in charge
tion based on the Group objectives with-
of Horizons.
out creating too much bureaucracy.” An important part of the new way of
This digital transformation, and the extensive work being carried out at
thinking is the establishment of a more
Carrefour relies heavily on the human
expressive working culture where employ-
touch and its rich pool of talent. “We
ees are encouraged to speak up about
are making a very strong effort to bring
their work and the wider industry and
onboard the best talents in tech, whether
trends. “We don’t want our people to be
it is developers, data scientists or archi-
shy in speaking up about tech or data,”
tects,” explains González. “Our aim is to
says González. “We want Carrefour to be
find and attract the best digital experts!
the coolest place to be today and we want
For example, we are proud to have among
our employees to feel happy and proud
us top leaders such as Alessandra
with regards to their work.”
Grendele, CIO of Carrefour Italy, and
This is the goal of Horizons by Carrefour.
Gabriela Stanica, CIO of Carrefour
Nobody thought Carrefour could openly
Romania, who both joined us pretty
speak about cutting-edge digital inno-
recently. There is a very rich set of digital
vations, but the important point is that
and tech talent here at Carrefour making
change is happening, and people are
all this happen. For me, it’s a constant
not shy to speak tech or data anymore.
source of inspiration that is really helping
Horizons, launched in October 2020, is
to change this company.”
Carrefo u r
Zo e B ord e lo n G ro up P ro j e c t M a n a g e r Ho r i zon s
www.theinterface.net
49