15 years of innovation at the most well-known supermarket chain in the Netherlands

Home»Client Cases»15 years of innovation at the most well-known supermarket chain in the Netherlands

About the collaboration

In 2006, Ronald Bakker was the first consultant via Qualogy at the most well-known supermarket chain in the Netherlands. Ronald joined as a Java Developer for the team working on the website for online orders. 15 years later, he works together with around 40 Qualogy colleagues on various assignments at this impressive client. A great moment to look back on the past 15 years. My first assignment was, as mentioned, at the website for online orders. I was immediately able to help build a new version of the website. This version used the Fredhopper system to manage the online assortment. The page also got a new look and feel. A fantastic challenge.

The IT organisation in 2006

The IT organisation looked completely different 15 years ago than it does today. The website was its own organisation within the company; I actually had little to do with the other IT departments. Due to our expertise, my colleagues and I were also technically responsible for the corporate website. The department consisted of 5 Oracle PL/SQL developers, 2 Java developers and 1 front-end developer was hired. In the area of Java, there was actually nothing yet, not even a version control system. Everything up to that point had largely been set up by the Java developer who was already there. The tech stack was also much less professional. The logic for the website was largely in Oracle PL/SQL. There was a Java layer that communicated with this and a front-end layer in front of that. The Java layer was written on a self-built framework. For comparison with now: we use Spring Boot on the Java side, which is deployed with Kubernetes in the Azure cloud. We are also increasingly using Kotlin instead of Java.

Contributing to multiple projects

I worked at the supermarket chain in 2 periods: from 2006 to 2016 and from October 2020 to the present. I think it's fantastic to be back. Over the years I have contributed to various assignments, such as: - building a recipe finder - single sign-on between old and new environment - building an online wine shop - building the mobile app - transition from old to new environment, including the termination of the old environment - the new recipe website with app Currently I am working on the digital assistant and on track & trace push notifications for online orders.

The growth of the brand

The supermarket chain has grown considerably over the past 15 years. In the beginning, the turnover from online orders doubled several times. And I suspect that has happened a few more times. Furthermore, the delivery area has been expanded from urban areas to virtually all of the Netherlands. In addition, even customer service is now being automated with a digital chatbot. And of course various mobile apps have been launched, with the most important being the online shopping app.

Highlights and challenges

I can remember several milestones. For example in 2006 when all of the Netherlands suddenly went to our online shop en masse around Christmas to search for recipes. Suddenly we had more than a million hits per day! And that for a small country with 17 million people. On Christmas Day the site was so busy that it crashed every hour. We totally did not expect this rush! In 2007 we were fortunately prepared for this and the site stayed up. I have always really enjoyed working on one of the most visited websites in the Netherlands. It is always a fun challenge to make this traffic technically possible. Also recently during the first lockdown we faced the challenge of extreme traffic. All of the Netherlands suddenly started doing online grocery shopping. The fact that you then manage to keep things running is fantastic. The online shopping app is also a highlight. It was one of the first apps in the Netherlands and suddenly everyone in the supermarket was walking around with their mobile phone. Very handy, because with that app you can put your shopping list in the walking order of your local supermarket.

The future of grocery shopping

This year, 4 supermarkets were in the top 10 of shops in the Netherlands. That says something about the popularity of supermarkets and the appreciation that Dutch people have for them. In addition, you see more and more small players in cities, who deliver groceries very quickly by bicycle. I think that will only grow in the coming years. Many people will realise that you can save a lot of time if you order online. You make your shopping list, pay online and then only have to wait for the delivery person. Convenient! I also think that more and more will be automated, including in the distribution centres and in the delivery process.

The role of Qualogy

Qualogy fits very well with this supermarket chain, because Qualogy has knowledge of Oracle. Oracle is still the backbone of the company. Furthermore, we are very good in the Java field, which has proven to be the most robust and scalable programming language to build your backend in. Qualogy has a large Java community, where everyone keeps each other up to date with the latest knowledge. Every two weeks we have a lunch session where we give each other presentations. External speakers also give presentations. And we share that knowledge with clients. And as the cherry on top, we also have an AI branch and Front-end expertise, for the cool new features.