Plus Retail teams with commercetools, Contentful, OutSystems to launch new e-commerce platform

PLUS Retail, the third largest service supermarket organisation in the Netherlands, has gone live with a new e-commerce platform.

In a LinkedIn post, Arvid Nieuwsma, Head of Product at PLUS Retail, said that this was inspired by the MACH Alliance.

“We created a headless and composable architecture, as this empowers us to differentiate locally on store level, and keeping up with the day-to-day innovation/best-of-breed choices,” he commented.

Key features: E2E event driven composable architecture, new e-commerce backbone courtesy of commercetools, new CMS (Contentful), new CIAM application (Thales Digital Identity and Security), and new headless front-end (OutSystems).

Nieuwsma said: “One of our ambitions was a faster time to market with features, in order to offer direct value and impact to our end customer. Thanks to feature toggle development and low code velocity we achieved this.”

“Second ambition was to be more flexible to make future choices in the underlying application landscape that better meet the needs, without having to overhaul the entire architecture.”

“Can you imagine the possibilities in differentiation on a local store level in terms of assortment, promotions and loyality programmes?”

He concluded: “We are over the moon that the time has come to accelerate on feature development, on value for the customer, our entrepreneurs and stores with this tech stack.”

The integration partner was Product League.

RELEX Solutions

Earlier this year, PLUS Retail expanded its partnership with RELEX Solutions to include a promotional planning and optimisation solution.

PLUS Retail operates in 500+ stores in the Netherlands.

The RELEX tech will be implemented in every store of the PLUS, PLUS Vandaag, and COOP formats across the country.

The retailer began using the RELEX forecasting and replenishment solution in 2021, followed by the implementation of RELEX Space Management capabilities.

Until recently, PLUS Retail managed promotion planning through spreadsheets, a time intensive and resource consuming task prone to errors and offering limited analytical options. 

It needed a tool to help category managers make more evidence-based decisions, optimise planning processes, run more effective campaigns, find the correct price point, and negotiate better deals with suppliers to drive increased revenue and profits while reducing costs. 

“The impact promotions have on our overall sales is increasing, and it is important for us to create campaigns that address our customers’ needs, enhance efficiency, and reduce errors,” said René Geelhuijzen, CIO at PLUS Retail.

“RELEX has been very accommodating and understanding of the PLUS way of thinking, and the trust we have in them, not only in their exceptional solutions but also in our relationship, has given us the confidence to move forward with this project.” 

“We are extremely excited to further strengthen our partnership with PLUS Retail and extend the scope of the solution with our comprehensive and powerful promotional planning and optimisation solution,” said Jason Berry, SVP Europe at RELEX Solutions.

“We are honoured by the trust they show in RELEX, and we look forward to supporting them on their important journey to optimise their promotion plans and increase their competitive advantage in their market.”