Supercharging App Ordering with 5x Faster Scanning: A Case Study on Elektro-Material

Elektro-Material

Elektro-Material AG is a leading supplier of electrical components to Switzerland’s construction industry. They are part of the Rexel Group, a global wholesaler of electrical goods with over 2,100 branches in 35 countries. Elektro-Material’s customers range from industrial buyers, builders and building contractors, to electricians and construction companies. Customers can make purchases from a comprehensive catalogue of 250,000 electrical goods, by phone through a sales representative; in person, at any of Elektro-Material’s nine branches across Switzerland; and through digital channels such as the EM webshop, and the EM order app from their iOS and Android smartphones.

Elektro-Material AG, a leading supplier of electrical components to Switzerland’s construction industry, faced a significant challenge with their EM order app. The app, which was a significant source of business revenue, had an open source scanning solution that customers used to scan barcodes from a catalogue or print barcode labels for products that did not have barcodes. However, customers found the scanning process slow, often taking several seconds to scan a single barcode. This delay resulted in a poor user experience and led customers to prefer reordering over the phone or at an Elektro-Material branch, especially for large orders. Additionally, some products only had serial numbers, which could not be captured by the open source scanning component of the EM app. These performance issues negatively impacted the customer’s purchase experience and reduced the number of orders originating through the app. Elektro-Material wanted to improve the app’s performance and increase customer stickiness.

Elektro-Material selected Scandit’s smartphone scanning technology to replace the open source scanning software in the EM app. Scandit’s barcode scanner SDK is compatible with over 20,000 smartphone models, providing an instantaneous scanning response. This was especially helpful for Elektro-Material, who had no control over the device types that their customers used. The transformation was quick and customers no longer experienced delays while ordering. Elektro-Material further enhanced the capability of Scandit’s barcode scanner SDK with additional features such as OCR (Optical Character Recognition) text recognition. Customers can now easily capture serial numbers on products that don’t have barcodes using the OCR scanner in the EM app. The company also added innovative features to the EM app including Scandit’s MatrixScan and augmented reality modules. With MatrixScan, customers save a significant amount of time, as they can scan multiple barcodes in a single sequence. The EM app is powered by Scandit’s augmented reality information overlays, which connects to Elektro-Material’s ERP system, instantly offering customers detailed product information on their smartphone screens with a simple hover over the barcode and without the need to login to the website.

• The implementation of Scandit’s scanning solution has led to quicker order processing and increased app engagement. Customers regularly scan and purchase through the EM app, and Elektro-Material continues to promote the EM order app to customers, encouraging them to transition from offline ordering channels to digital. As customer adoption and engagement with the EM app grows, Elektro-Material’s digital channels are contributing to a higher volume of revenue. Feedback from Elektro-Material’s customers, employees and management is that Scandit’s scanning performance is significantly faster than the app’s original open source scanning software. Elektro-Material sees Scandit as a long term partner, offering much more than a scanning solution, and looks to Scandit for opportunities to innovate and enhance the functionality of their order app.

• Scanning performance is approximately five times faster than the app’s original open source scanning software.
• The app received over 95,000 scans in a short time frame of three months, compared to 112,000 scans made over 12 months during the previous year.
• Scandit’s scanning solution is the EM app’s most used feature, coming a close second after the app’s search function.