Behind the curtain of Switzerland’s first P2P grocery delivery platform AMIGOS
AMIGOS is the fastest, freshest and most personal food delivery service — that’s the ambition behind Switzerland’s first peer-to-peer grocery delivery platform launched by local retailer Migros in April 2018. I had the opportunity to talk to four of the brilliant minds behind AMIGOS and I am happy to share the insights with you now.
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First of all, let me briefly explain how AMIGOS works. The platform, consisting of a webshop and an app, brings two peer groups together:
- the orderers («Besteller»), who place an order through the AMIGOS Webshop. Orderers are people who prefer to do their grocery shopping online because they lack the time to visit local branches in person.
- the deliverers («Bringer»), who execute an order and deliver the groceries to the orderer’s home address supported by the AMIGOS App (iOS / Android). Deliverers like shopping and want to engage socially by shopping for groceries for their neighbors too.
This blog article is based on an interview with
- Matthias Wälchli, Head of Pick-up and Delivery Service at Migros — customer and initiator
- Gilbert Lordong, IT Project Manager at Migros — customer and initiator
- Amadeus Petrig, User Experience Expert at Migros — customer and initiator
- Nino Cometti, CEO of dreipol — one of the implementing agencies
and will focus on the creation process and the collaboration between the various stakeholders. For detailed information about the AMIGOS web and app functionalities I recommend you visit this page (in German).
The ambition
«With AMIGOS we are striving to provide our customers with an entirely new shopping experience», says Amadeus Petrig. «AMIGOS is a courageous, innovative and highly human project. It brings neighbors closer together and supports the local branches.» That’s the idea behind it. One question remains though: Is Switzerland ready for such a peer-to-peer (P2P) shopping platform?
So let’s start from the beginning.
The start
It might not surprise you that a comprehensive analysis by Migros marked the beginning of the AMIGOS journey. «We wanted to learn from the best», says Matthias Wälchli and that means retailers in the US (Instacart) and in Denmark (VIGO), who pioneered P2P grocery shopping.
Next was the detailed elaboration of potential users (personas) on the orderer as well as the deliverer side. Last but not least came the definition of all the elementary processes regarding the web and mobile apps, matching mechanisms, mutual ratings, payment and support.
«In the end, we defined three key factors that should make P2P work for AMIGOS», says Matthias Wälchli. These were as follows:
- A highly functional, intuitive and safe platform in regards to its three main processes — ordering, delivering and paying
- Enough orderers to generate traffic and ensure maximum utilization
- Enough deliverers to ensure a stable backbone for the platform
The challenges — Part I
AMIGOS is a pioneering project in many ways and came with a few challenges, as Gilbert Lordong points out: «Some of them were on a more general level, e.g. guaranteeing equal numbers of orderers and deliverers. Others were very specific in regards to managing the project.» For example, the collaboration among several teams and their different expectations. While the look and feel of AMIGOS was pretty clear to Migros, the developers only had a ‘blurred vision’ of the end result at the beginning. «So, one of the first steps was to capture the use of AMIGOS in everyday life, making it understandable to everyone before focusing on the development of the webshop and app», says Gilbert Lordong.
The challenges — Part II
On the agency side, there were also quite some challenges. «On the one hand, we all wanted to proceed as fast as possible in an agile setting. On the other hand, we had to fulfill high demands and comply with deadlines», outlines Nino Cometti. Guaranteeing a smooth communication and payment process, integrating over 5,000 products into the webshop and respecting Migros cooperative regional structure by displaying specific and differing regional product ranges online were further challenges.
The solution
How did the team manage to launch the project successfully? According to Gilbert Lordong this was mainly by
- working in an interdisciplinary way
- working closely — even geographically closely
- establishing a positive team spirit
- creating excitement for the cause
- choosing a pragmatic approach
- working in (scaled) scrum
The allies
Having the right experts and partners on board was part of the solution. Alongside Migros and dreipol, Liip was highly involved in the project. «Together with Liip, we integrated 10 web services to guarantee the functionality of the platform as well as its offline handling», explains Nino Cometti. Publicis took care of the communications, and SwissQ Consulting of the testing. OneConsult, Stormforger and Webrepublic were also involved.
What’s next?
So let’s go back to the initial question: Is Switzerland ready for such a peer-to-peer (P2P) shopping platform? «Yes, it is», says Matthias Wälchli. «We see great interest and involvement among the deliverers. Up next is the onboarding of more orderers.»
«This onboarding will not happen overnight, however, but needs a long breath», adds Amadeus Petrig. «People are creatures of habit and changes in behavior take time. Shopping, in particular, is one of these activities that has been consolidated for years, if not decades, and in which the power of habit is particularly strong. The way to break these habits is through a perfect hurdle-free user experience. Because digital services like ‘AMIGOS’ live from all things on the convenience with which they can be used. Only when the user experiences an added value compared to the status quo will he change his behavior sustainably.»
AMIGOS is a pioneering project. It combines, in an unprecedented way, a webshop, app and matching platform within the superstructure of an integrated payment process. It also is a business model that can and will be extended to other formats. AMIGOS brought together specialists in the creating process. Up and running, it follows a very socially conscious approach by connecting people from the same neighborhood.
Want to get in touch?
Matthias Wälchli — LinkedIn, E-Mail
Gilbert Lordong — LinkedIn, E-Mail
Amadeus Petrig — LinkedIn, E-Mail
Nino Cometti — LinkedIn, E-Mail
. . .
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