Carrefour – Brochure 2021

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

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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

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A future-proof, reliable and scalable platform for retail digitalization

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Access to additional information (NFC)

AUTOMATIC GEOLOCATION OF PRODUCTS

Product finding made easy

SIMPLIFIED INVENTORY MANAGEMENT

CLICK & COLLECT

Improve your stores’ stock data and simplify inventory checks

30%* time-saving when picking e-commerce orders with Instant Flash and optimized route planning

PRICE AUTOMATION

Execute dynamic pricing and meet today's complex omni-channel requirements WASTE MANAGEMENT

Reduce food waste by 30%* and save time

RAPID REPLENISHMENT

Save several seconds per item

*Pricer estimate based on customer data. Results may vary based on usage.

Enhance your in-store experience with a true real-time solution

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

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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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Technology for grocers, by grocers

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

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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