Online is offline, and offline is online

We started the online shop project at the start of 2016 and wanted to serve our first online customers within 18 months; it took a bit longer than planned but, in the end, we are pleased that we now have a good foundation. Right from the start we were offering the full range of online services, which means: click & collect, click & reserve and shipping. To achieve this, we are working with two commissioning branches. Two large Jumbo-Maximo stores handle the shipping orders throughout Switzerland.

Definitely: an omni-channel strategy is a top priority at Jumbo. We try to live it consistently. You can see this by the fact that it is also strongly emphasised in our stores. The online shop is a part of the chain and that has to be clear at every POS too.That's why we have been working intensively with our sales crew. Right from the start we made it clear that there is no competition between stores and online shop. It is a completely integrated part of the company and the new shop window in the chain. Every salesperson at every branch has to start working with the online shop. Offline is online, online is offline. We have set clear rules for this: the online sales are assigned to the respective branch within a catchment area. 

Everything is completely integrated within our Category Management. This means that our Category Managers take care of both the stationary area as well as the online shop. This is essential for me and, considering our size, not realistic in any other way. The technical and commercial operation of the online shop is supported by two specific units. 

We now have almost 18 000 articles online and we are aiming to get the full stationary range online by the end of 2019; that will be around 65 000 articles. The focus is clearly on the assortment in the stores. At the moment we don't want to talk about long tails. The articles we have online are the articles we keep in stationary stores.In terms of user figures, it is currently around 20 000 customers every day who search for information or purchase at our online shop.

We made the decision to show the whole range which is deliberately not focussed on only a few groups of products such as garden furniture or power tools. And…