Listen to everyone and do it your way. How “Azbuka Vkusa” changed the e-commerce platform. Egor Lanko: “How to promote a large supermarket chain by giving up tasks by phone and e-mail. And that’s great. Thank you for the conversation

Alytics CEO Ilya Makarov with the director of omnichannel trade at Azbuka Vkusa Egor Lanko.

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Egor Lanko

Ilya Makarov: Egor, your position is called “omni-channel director”. What does your position mean, what are you responsible for?

Egor Lanko: I am responsible for the online store and the development of customer services. I also coordinate the implementation of an omnichannel strategy for the business.

Over the past year, as part of our project, I have heard at least five definitions of omni-channel. Can you define “omni-channel” in one sentence, as ABC of Taste sees it?

For us, omni-channel is satisfying all possible gastronomic needs of the client online and offline in the most convenient way for him.

When you talk about online, you first of all mean the ABC of Taste online store. But it is still not adapted for smartphones. How so?

Why not adapted? We have a fully responsive website.

Everything is very small.

We are not satisfied with the adaptive version that we have now, expect a redesign soon. However, people are actively purchasing from smartphones and tablets.

How much mobile traffic do you have?

How many people order through mobile apps?

About 15% of our orders occur through mobile applications.

I’m now looking at the numbers from Google Play and see that “The ABC of Taste” has been downloaded 10,000 times. In this case, you have 15% of orders.

Look at the iPhone numbers. Android, in principle, is not popular with our audience. More than 90% of our customers are iPhone users.

Got it. What bothers me about delivering groceries from the store? How can I tell that this fish has not been frozen several times? Or that this is not a rejected product that was rejected by another buyer. Or this particular carrot was not grown by the North Koreans, who sprinkle everything with terrible chemicals to accelerate growth in order to harvest 3-4 crops per season, and then dump it back home. In the store I can touch and smell. And when they brought me just bags, I can’t do this. Does anyone other than me have this problem and how do you deal with it?

Distrust in the online food market is a widespread problem. The good news is this is temporary. The West has already walked this path, and we will too. We don't fight, we just understand how to work with it. First, you need to simplify or force the buyer to make the first order and at the same time explain to the person that he has the opportunity to completely or partially refuse, that it is free and he does not risk anything. To do this, we lead him through the funnel and work with his barriers and needs.

Then a more complex story begins. In order for a person to order for the second and subsequent times, you need to anticipate his expectations. For example, he expected one thing, and you brought him products better than he buys in the store. In an online store, for example, there are more stringent requirements for expiration dates than in offline stores. We have our own bakery and packaging workshop in our warehouse. We calibrate all the vegetables we include in orders. Let's say a person ordered a kilogram of grapes. Before ordering, we inspect each bunch and remove all grapes that have at least some speck.

This costs a lot of money.

And at the same time it costs less than spending a lot of money on advertising to bring this buyer in again. In our business, repeat purchase is everything. Yes, it can be very expensive to get a client, but then, if he starts ordering, he brings in a lot of money.

In addition, he begins to tell people he knows and so on. There is no better advertising, especially in new markets, than recommending to friends that this is really cool.

Do you consider food delivery companies like Food Parties, Need Dinner, Elementary and others as competitors?

We are looking there, but I won’t say that it is very aggressive. The market there is tiny. We plan to be in this market too, but after some time.

Is it true that in the courtyard of the central office of the ABC of Taste there is one of the first pavilions of delicacies from Kutuzovsky Prospekt, from which the history of the ABC of Taste began?

Yes its true. But few people remember this anymore. This is at the fourth building, opposite our second office.

I think this says a lot about the founders of the company. Who is your target audience?

Our target audience is people who want to enjoy their food.

No, wait, let me rephrase that. Are you interested in social dem or lifestyle?

I have always perceived “ABC of Taste” as a place where people who feel slightly ill from the amount of money stock up. When I was a student, I once went to the ABC of Taste, simply because there were no other stores nearby, and was surprised at the pie for 250 rubles.

We are still focused on the middle plus class. At the same time, we work for different market segments. So, we have the “AV Market” format, not oligarchs come here, but ordinary people who used to go to “Perekrestok”, “Lenta”, “Pyaterochka”. Or they combine “Auchan” and “Azbuka Vkusa”. This is a different type of consumption.

Do you still have the premium segment?

I recently drove along Rublevskoye Highway, and everything there was covered with Globus Gourmet: banners, banners, some kind of media facades. As I understand it, they are the premium segment now? How do you feel about them?

They have a small market segment that they work with.

Who is the premium segment in Russia today, besides officials?

If we talk about Moscow, these are, as a rule, smart people. This is not just the bureaucratic class, but senior managers, people who have their own business. These people value their time and try to get the most out of life. We are on the same wavelength with them and want to give them an island of love and relaxation when they enter the store and forget about their problems, spend some time in friendship with us and are charged with positive gastronomic emotions.

You sound like TV again. Let's get serious. British Tesco divides its customers into poor and rich. When entering the site, they show the conditionally poor peas cheap, and the conditionally rich - expensive ones. Is it the same with you?

We do not divide into rich and poor. But, indeed, we have a personalization module on the website, where we tailor the product display for each client that is most suitable for him. Some are vegetarians, some don’t like onions, others value lactose-free products. We compare various similar portraits of audiences, look at what other people of similar portraits bought, and for this we offer exactly the same sample, the same favorite products.

How many people buy from you online more than once a month?

I won’t say the exact number, but on average clients buy twice a month. Our client base is somewhere around 100,000 clients. But some of them don’t buy at all; they belong to the inactive part. Active base - again depends on the frequency of purchases. We have strict segmentation. Depending on the frequency of client purchases, our database is divided into different segments, and there is a strategy for each segment: how we work, with the help of what notifications, triggers, personalizations; for each segment to switch it to another segment.

Western retailers are now introducing a “Click & Collect” service - where I can order online and then pop in on the way home and pick up a bag of groceries. Are you planning to do it?

We have already done it, but so far only in St. Petersburg. We have added a “drive” service to this. “Drive” means that you can place an order, and we will deliver your order to the trunk of your car. We are still debugging the service to perfection. We started with 10 minutes and the final goal was 60 seconds. If in 60 seconds we can ensure the process of order pick-up and pickup, it will be a good reference that can be scaled later, including in Moscow.

How actively do people in St. Petersburg use this service?

About every tenth person, no more for now.

How do you think retail chains in omni-channel will develop in terms of tactics and strategy in the near future?

All major trends boil down to blurring the line between online and offline. This, in my opinion, is exactly what is happening in the market now and where we are heading.

I really like what Amazon did in the pilot, launching an offline store without cash registers. A person comes, takes goods, he is identified, he leaves with these goods, and the money is automatically debited from his card.

At the same time, by acquiring the Whole Foods chain, Amazon made it clear that pure online is doomed. The “online + offline” model works best in products

Let's take a final look at your marketing mix. Yandex.Direct or Google AdWords?

They work great, the best.

What percentage?

15% somewhere from the proceeds.

Call center - in-house or outsourced?

Are you upselling?

A lot of?

I will not say.

Aggressively?

No, not aggressively. We only upsell if a person orders a product by phone. Some orders come to the phone - we will, of course, upsell there. Or if there are any replacements, we will upsell. But we do not propose proactively, so as not to disturb him.

I can call and ask for advice on what wine should I buy?

You can ask, but there are no cavisists in the call center. You can be switched to cavista from our Enoteca.

And that's great. Thank you for the conversation!

You can listen to the full audio version of the interview at

What to do if you have not found suitable integrator expertise in implementing the chosen IT system? Do things outside the box. Egor Lanko, director of omnichannel trade at the Azbuka Vkusa chain, and Sergei Tinyakov, partner at AT Consulting, spoke in an interview with CNews about how a well-known retailer and a large IT company abandoned traditional approaches.

09.03.2017

CNews: What were the prerequisites for the project?

Egor Lanko:

Egor Lanko

We chose omnichannel as a strategy because it allows us to maintain a single internal business process

Historically, Azbuka Vkusa has developed a rather original business model and complex technological processes, which previously did not have a suitable online trading platform to support. We used the UMI CMS system, which was integrated with a large number of proprietary and industrial solutions.

The high degree of customization, the large number of integrated systems and the increase in data volumes made the platform slow and unstable, making the purchasing process inconvenient. And this negatively affects the level of customer satisfaction. Additionally, our existing platform did not allow us to scale to support our omnichannel strategy.

CNews: How did you choose a new platform?

Egor Lanko:

We chose omnichannel as a strategy because it allows us to maintain a single internal business process. In this case, we wanted to create the tools necessary for omnichannel, when all the logic is implemented in the platform, and related systems are already subordinate to it: both the contact center and the mobile application, which are only showcases of a single solution. There are only six Enterprise-class online trading platforms that would meet our requirements and strategy. We looked at them all and settled on SAP Hybris Commerce.

CNews: What was the choice of the integrator based on?

Egor Lanko:

First, we conducted a complete study of the integrator market. We looked at companies that had experience working with SAP Hybris, studied their proposals, and conducted reference visits to look at the features of the projects and possible pitfalls.

We saw a bleak picture - many integrators could not clearly answer questions about the implementation of specific processes in the system, but they submitted commercial proposals with very high prices.

AT Consulting had no experience in implementing SAP Hybris, but its specialists knew the basic technologies used in the system. But the main thing is an understanding of our business: the AT Consulting team previously participated in the development of BI, CM and CRM solutions at Azbuka Vkusa. We assessed the prospects for cooperation on a new project, held negotiations and decided to involve this company in the implementation of the platform.

CNews: Why did AT Consulting decide to join the project at Azbuka Vkusa?

Sergey Tinyakov:

Sergey Tinyakov

We consider e-commerce and the creation of digital interaction platforms to be one of the key areas of business

Firstly, we have a long positive relationship with Azbuka Vkusa. In particular, we successfully cooperated in the implementation of the loyalty program.

Secondly, we consider e-commerce and the creation of digital interaction platforms to be one of the key areas of business. At that time, we had experience in implementing similar platforms in telecom and the public sector. These were complex and highly loaded solutions. For retail, we also had e-commerce projects, but on a smaller scale. Therefore, the decision to participate in the competition was a logical, but at the same time a very responsible step for us.

CNews: How was the work of the project team organized?

Egor Lanko:

We also approached this issue in a non-standard way. We abandoned the generally accepted approach to implementation in the “customer-executor” model. Instead, they created the project team as a single joint unit. This, of course, is very different from the usual approach where a contractor undertakes to make a turnkey solution. Georgy Mikhailov, director of innovations at Azbuka Vkusa, made a huge contribution to the project and the choice of implementation methodology.

Literally everyone to whom we told about such an organization of project work, twisted their finger at their temples and said that this was wrong, that it was necessary to invite an integrator with experience in implementing this product and go the classic way. Nevertheless, we chose exactly this method of work and, as it turned out, we were not mistaken.

Sergey Tinyakov:

This approach had a number of advantages. For example, situations often arise on projects when it is necessary to deviate from the technical specifications and perform some unforeseen work. This requires additional approvals, financing, and so on, which slows down the process. We had similar situations, but they didn’t even reach me as a partner of the company, because a single team solved everything in a working manner. After all, we knew from the very beginning that such situations would arise and were prepared for them.

CNews: What goals did you set for the project team?

Egor Lanko:

Here we have once again broken the classical schemes. Usually, in parallel with the implementation of a new platform, everyone is creating a new website, which in theory should improve revenue indicators, visitor conversion, and so on. But this path contains a very serious risk, which we saw after analyzing the experience of our colleagues.

The fact is that in large companies, to which Azbuka Vkusa belongs, many divisions have representation on the site, so the process of approval and implementation of fundamental changes in it goes through a complex system of internal approvals and lasts a very long time.

As a result, when a new site is ready and agreed upon, the old one has time to go through the next stage of development, and serious desynchronization occurs between departments. This happened with many Russian companies that we studied: having created a new portal in a year, they could not switch to it for another whole year, catching up with all the innovations that appeared on the old one during implementation. Because of this problem, some have still not been able to take advantage of the results of their expensive projects.

After studying this risk, we decided to replatform instead of a new site. That is, all the basic functionality and design had to remain the same, and our task was to competently transfer the site to the new platform. And the whole project had to be done quickly.

CNews: How quickly was the project implemented?

Sergey Tinyakov:

In fact, we also did it for a little less than a year, but, as Egor said, thanks to the chosen methodology we did not have to “catch up” with the old site, and this is the main thing. I am sure that we could launch a new platform faster, but Azbuka Vkusa is a large company, and it is running several projects in parallel. For example, the timing was affected by the work on implementing a loyalty program; we actually had to suspend our project while the loyalty program was launched, and then catch up.

And the second point is that after the project was approved, we ourselves decided to do something more correct from the point of view of the architectural approach and not to do point-to-point integration, but to introduce a full-fledged integration bus. For this purpose, DaDa Bridge was chosen - our own development based on an open source solution.

Egor Lanko:

But, even despite these factors, we met the deadline. It is known that this is very rare in the practice of IT projects. And cost savings are considered even more rare. And we spent about 30% less than originally planned, primarily due to the effective organization of work in a joint team.

Sergey Tinyakov:

As for the deadline, we had to launch the site on the new platform in the first half of November, because then the “high season” begins. People are stocking up on groceries for the holidays, and the online retail system is under a lot of stress. This requirement was met.

Egor Lanko:

“The launch of the new platform has had an immediate impact on revenue: we've seen it grow steadily and that customers are no longer leaving the site due to technical problems when searching and ordering products.”

Sergey Tinyakov:

“Azbuka Vkusa has received a modern platform for digital interaction with customers, which will support business development over the next few years.”

CNews: How deep did you customize SAP Hybris Commerce?

Egor Lanko:

We did not touch the core of the system, but the functional modules have undergone significant customization. We had to do this because Azbuka Vkusa has non-standard technological processes that we had to follow without changing them. For high-quality food trade and ultra-fast delivery from the warehouse, unique business solutions were developed that were simply not in the box. And many existing mechanisms had to be redone.

CNews: What features of the new platform were key for you?

Egor Lanko:

I said that the main functionality of the site remained the same - we have not yet introduced any innovations here, except for the faceted search for a product, that is, a search based on a number of criteria specific to this particular product, as well as writing off bonuses, which in itself is a complex technological process. We also created an adaptive design for the main page, which can “adapt” to the screen of any client device. The rest of the site has retained its usual appearance.

But the back-end now provides many serious additional features compared to the previous solution. For example, we have already launched a mobile application, which is based on the logic of the SAP Hybris platform and is only its showcase. Therefore, it will be very easy to transfer any sections of the site to the mobile application.

In addition, we are implementing a product catalog management module, which provides a powerful and high-quality solution. We also plan to implement a promotional module that will allow us to determine in real time which customer segment the client belongs to, and in accordance with this determination, personalize the website for him and make individual offers.

CNews: How should the customer experience change due to the launch of the new platform?

Egor Lanko:

I believe that customer satisfaction with our service should increase. We plan to reduce delivery time by improving the IT circuit. It should be noted that we already have one of the fastest deliveries among all online stores in Moscow. Now the system will take into account the nature of the order. For example, if a client buys baked goods, he will have to wait a little while it is made in our bakery, and if he buys ready-made products, and is also located close to the warehouse, then the order fulfillment time can be reduced to one or two hours.

Recommendation systems, a “subscription products” service, and many other interesting opportunities will appear. The task of “Azbuka Vkusa” is to create a unique customer experience in the field of “online food”, to solve those customer problems that he cannot solve in the store. We have a huge number of ideas and new plans with which we will delight our clients quite often. The main emphasis in the strategy is on innovation in logistics, online merchandising, inspiration services, personalization, unique adaptation of the loyalty program and new customer services.

CNews: How do you evaluate the results of the project?

Egor Lanko:

The main thing is high speed and stability of the site, because, I repeat, the previous platform no longer met our requirements. The launch of the new one immediately affected the revenue: for a month and a half we have seen it growing steadily, and that customers no longer leave the site due to technical problems while searching and ordering goods.

In general, we believe that the implementation of the online trading platform “Azbuka Vkusa” has become one of the most successful projects on SAP Hybris in Russia. Let me remind you that we studied the experience of our colleagues quite well before launching our project.

Sergey Tinyakov:

Azbuka Vkusa received a modern platform for digital interaction with customers, which will support business development over the next few years. Another result is that thanks to the inclusion of its developers and analysts in a single project team, the customer received full-fledged expertise for further independent technical support and development of the solution.

Director of the Department of Distance Selling and Digital Marketing at Azbuka Vkusa

We simply create departments and subdepartments in Bitrix24. We assign each of them its own access rights. For example, there is a “Design” department - there are full-time employees responsible for design, assign tasks to the contractor and monitor his work.

Imagine that you are the owner of a large retail chain of grocery stores. Your company's turnover over the past year amounted to 32.5 billion rubles. You are ambitious and want to develop further. At the same time, the digital marketing department, responsible for maintaining the image of your company, sales and feedback from consumers, works the old fashioned way - through email and telephone. Is effective growth possible in this case? Even if you don’t own a supermarket chain, you understand perfectly well – no, it’s not possible.

The Azbuka Vkusa company strives to achieve maximum results at the lowest cost, so it willingly accepted the implementation of Bitrix24 in its Distance Selling and Digital Marketing Department. We met with its leader, Egor Lanko, who told us why he chose Bitrix24 to manage his team.

Everyone knows the “ABC of Taste”; there is no need to introduce it. :).”

Our conversation with Yegor began with these words. You can’t argue: “Azbuka Vkusa” is indeed a brand that is familiar even to people living far from the capitals. There are several reasons for this.

Firstly, this is one of the oldest companies in the Russian food retail market. Azbuka Vkusa was founded in 1992, and since 1997, that is, for 17 years, it has been developing as a supermarket chain.

Secondly, Azbuka Vkusa is qualitatively different from other grocery stores. We are talking not only about the freshness and range of products (more than 18 thousand product items), but also about the level of service. After all, you can make purchases without leaving your home - in an online store. The products will be delivered to your home or office at a convenient time.

Thirdly, ABC of Taste supports the active development of the company, based on the initiative of its employees. One of these initiatives was the introduction of Bitrix24 into the work of the company’s Distance Selling and Digital Marketing Department.

“This is an internal pilot project. If I show my colleagues its effectiveness, then perhaps it will go wider.”

Today, this division of ABC of Taste employs about 260 people (this does not include third-party contractors). All of them “pilot” Bitrix24 tools. The latter made it possible to create a unified information field - all processes are controlled, all employees are aware of company news.

The ABC of Taste digital marketing department tried various management systems, but it turned out that most of them were quite specific - “tailored” for the work of programmers and web studios. According to Egor Lanko, his team needed a simpler and more universal solution that could easily connect even people far from the Internet. Thus, access to Bitrix24 is available, for example, to employees who manage warehouses and contractors who are not part of the department’s staff.

At the same time, Egor, as a manager, does not see the need to use the Extranet.

“We are simply creating departments and subdepartments in Bitrix24. We assign each of them its own access rights. For example, there is a “Design” department - there are full-time employees responsible for design, assign tasks to the contractor and monitor his work.”

Setting and monitoring tasks is the main tool of Bitrix24, used by the digital marketing department of ABC of Taste. There, as in many other companies, task management initially relied on two pillars - email and mobile phone. But it soon became clear that this foundation was too unreliable: tasks in the mail were lost and ended up in spam, “telephone” orders were practically uncontrollable.

Bitrix24 not only concentrated all tasks for all employees in one place, but also made it possible to clearly control the timing of their completion.

Another tool actively used in the department is “Disk”. Press releases, presentations, project concepts - it is important that all documentation is stored together and is accessible to any employee from anywhere in the world.

In addition, Bitrix24 serves as a convenient discussion platform - attached files can be immediately viewed and commented on, including through the mobile client.

“Many employees use the mobile version of Bitrix24 to quickly set tasks and discuss them.”

As for the prospects for cooperation with Bitrix24, Egor Lanko is confident that the use of this product is possible not only in the digital sphere. Bitrix24 is a multidisciplinary system; its tools are flexibly applicable in trade, logistics, and promotion. My only wish is stable work 24 hours a day. However, the name itself obliges Bitrix24 to do this. ;)

Azbuka Vkusa is a Russian chain of food supermarkets. It includes more than 70 stores located in Moscow and the Moscow region, St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region. The company has a huge assortment - over 18,000 items from 900 manufacturers from 70 countries. It ranks first among grocery supermarkets in terms of turnover per square meter.

Mission: create the world's best chain of grocery supermarkets.