Swiss retail company Coop: A Highly Efficient E-Commerce Warehouse Created in 14 Days

With around 90,000 employees, Coop is a major player in Switzerland. Besides the well-known supermarket chain, the Coop Group also includes various sales formats as well as wholesale and production companies. In 2020, this successful company achieved total revenues of 30.17 billion Swiss francs, and its online retailing business has seen powerful growth.

Focus on increasing capacity

While traditionally rooted in brick and mortar retail, Coop recorded a sharp rise in orders via the online shop Coop.ch during the lockdown of spring 2020. Faced with this unforeseeable spike in demand, the logistics structures reached the limits of their capacity. A quick solution therefore had to be found to create more storage space and offer customers additional delivery time slots. 

Twin-pillar strategy for online business implemented in a rush

Coop initiated a twin-pillar strategy. First, an assortment of products was defined that would keep an average Swiss household supplied with basic goods. These products would then be handled via a 6,000 square meter warehouse leased at short notice, equipped with a new IT and logistics infrastructure, and connected to the Coop network, all within the space of 14 days. WAMAS was implemented in partnership with SSI Schaefer. At the same time, more than 100 pickers were trained to operate the logistics software, which has been used since commissioning to manage the rapid processing of online orders efficiently via 300 pick-up locations with multiple placement. The extremely user-friendly WAMAS user interface also ensured that staff could learn the system quickly.

Software standard and team strength as project accelerators

Coop has relied on the software expertise of SSI Schaefer for its warehouse management since 2001. The retail and wholesale company uses a uniform warehouse management (WMS) solution at all its locations to optimize performance and harmonize logistics processes. Another advantage of WAMAS is the increased transparency of all stocks and transactions with complete traceability. The integrated software standard, tailor-made for Coop, as well as trust in the partner’s know-how built up over the course of a 20-year collaboration, proved decisive in overcoming even unplanned events: "Setting up a warehouse from scratch and putting it into operation in just 14 days is only possible with dependable partners, and a team where everyone knows what to do, and if you can fully rely on each other," says Martin Nyfeler, Head of IT Pro. WW Logistics/SCM, Coop, underlining the successful collaboration with SSI Schaefer.

Agile enough to cope with the unexpected and reliably prepared

Flexibility, responsiveness, and the ability to put ideas into practice are always elementary success factors, but in challenging times they are downright essential. While seasonal fluctuations in demand can be cushioned by precise advance planning over several months, a pandemic event calls for ad-hoc measures to maintain supply chains. These can only be implemented effectively with the support of a long-standing software partner like SSI Schaefer, who understands both the industry and the customer’s specific needs, and is fully familiar with the processes. At the same time, the new e-commerce warehouse in Altishofen which has been implemented within a very short time for Coop – a retail company that has also become a successful online retailer – is tangible proof that the material handling specialist has again lived up to its promise to deliver flexibility and speed plus security and stability in every situation.