METRO Group and real present the future of shopping

This article is brought to you by Retail Technology Review: METRO Group and real present the future of shopping.

On 28 May 2008, METRO Group will open the real,- Future Store in Toenisvorst, North Rhine-Westphalia. At this hypermarket of the future the retail company and its sales brand real,- will test the latest technologies and innovative concepts for the shopping of the future. The objective is to optimally adapt the product assortment and service offer to the individual needs of the customers and advance modernization in the retail sector.

In Toenisvorst, METRO Group and real,- will be breaking new ground in addressing customers as well as in store design and assortment mix. Modern checkout processes will further raise convenience in the checkout area. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) will also play a key role at the real,- Future Store. This technology for automatic product identification will contribute to rendering quality management even more efficient.

Innovation leader in the retail sector
"For us, technologies and new concepts are the key to meeting the changing demands of our customers also in the future", said Dr. Gerd Wolfram, Managing Director of MGI METRO Group Information Technology GmbH. "At the real,- Future Store we are bundling numerous innovations in a complex system and testing which ones are actually accepted by the customers. As one of the leading international retailing companies we thereby provide decisive impulses for the entire industry".

METRO Group will successively roll out those concepts or technologies that stand the test to the stores and outlets of its sales brands. "For us, the participation in the Future Store is not an end in itself but it involves an economic benefit", explains Jol Saveuse, member of the Management Board of METRO Group and CEO of real,-. "In a highly competitive market we can only differentiate ourselves from our competitors through innovations and thereby win over customers for real,-".

Strong partnership
The measures to convert the hypermarket in Toenisvorst, near Duesseldorf to the real,- Future Store have already been largely completed. For the development and implementation of the new technologies and concepts METRO Group was able to draw on the know-how of the Future Store Initiative. This initiative founded by the METRO Group in 2002 now comprises around 85 partners from the consumer goods and IT industries, the services sector and the scientific world, including SAP, Intel, IBM, T-Systems and Cisco.

Technologies for practical application
With the real,- Future Store the METRO Group is continuing a success story. Already back in 2003 the retail company had opened a Future Store in Rheinberg near Duesseldorf. The company has rolled out many technologies tested in this store to the outlets of its sales brands including novelties such as the Smart Scales that automatically identify fruit and vegetables as well as the self-checkouts where the customers can scan their purchases on their own.