Croatia's Studenac teams with Infobip on conversational tools that boost customer engagement

Croatian grocery retailer Studenac has partnered with Infobip to design and implement solutions for customer conversations.

The aim is to improve customer engagement by allowing people to use platforms such as WhatsApp to communicate with Studenac.

“We are excited to join forces with Infobip to help us accelerate our journey of improving customer satisfaction, on a project that’s the first of its kind in Croatia,” says Studenac Board President Michał Seńczuk.

“Our team’s hard work has already brought us to the leading position by number of stores, but we’re not finished yet. Through initiatives like this, we’re harnessing digital technologies to continue growing, targeting a market share of more than 10% and a position among Croatia’s top three retailers by sales in the next three years.”

Studenac, owned by Central European private equity fund Enterprise Investors, has around 1,100 stores today and plans to open 120 new locations this year. It is looking to reach more than 2,000 by 2025.

“This partnership with Studenac is the perfect fit for us, as this exciting project is an additional step towards our vision of creating a retail innovation centre where we co-innovate with partners to provide them with cutting-edge solutions for customer conversations,” says Ivan Ostojić, Chief Business Officer at Infobip.

“We are happy to enhance these efforts together with local partners and industry leading brands, with the joint goal of enabling the future of conversational retail. The future is conversational and putting customers at the centre of the experience with hyper-personalisation, automation, and 24/7 availability proves to be the key.”

In addition to Croatian, the service will be available in English, making connections with the brand easier for the 20 million tourists who visit the Adriatic country each year.

Last year, Studenac launched a digital centre of excellence. The unit is spearheading innovation initiatives, using technologies such as advanced analytics to respond to customer needs and make the business more agile and efficient.

“The ultimate goal of all of our digital initiatives is to help us stay close to the customer and improve their experience with our brand,” says Chief Innovation Officer Nina Mimica, who oversees Studenac Digital.

“Consumers are looking for smoother, faster and more engaged interactions with retailers. We’re proud to be building a completely new solution that will address this need.”

“We are working on a total of 15 projects that will use innovation, automation and data analysis to improve our business and help us live up to our slogan of being ‘both small and essential’ for shoppers around Croatia.”