Customer Story
Letzshop
In this use case, you will learn how the country of Luxembourg, as the operator of an online platform, provides all retailers in the country with a digital infrastructure through which they can present and sell their products and services. It does not matter whether merchants have already taken the first steps towards digitization - such as having their own online store - or whether they are only at the very beginning of their digitization.
LUXEMBOURG in numbers
635,000 inhabitants
2.586 km² Area
150.000 border-crosser
Our Platform as a Service Promise
What would it be like if all retailers had the same opportunities to link offline with online, regardless of their basic requirements?
The ministry in Luxembourg has taken this question to task and launched a digitization offensive in 2018. The nationwide online platform letzshop.lu should soon link brick-and-mortar stores in Luxembourg with the world of e-commerce.
Lex Delles, Minister of Small Business & Tourism
Tasks
- During the initial internal analysis, the responsible parties realized that in-house technical development for reasons of time and resources was out of the question for such a complex project. Implementation and technical operation can only be carried out by an external IT partner.
- A critical number of retailers and products is a prerequisite for a good customer shopping experience and thus for the success of the new platform. The merchants must be approached accordingly and won over for participation.
- The citizens of Luxembourg should learn about the new digital shopping opportunity as quickly as possible and with significantly fewer resources than are available in traditional corporations.
Implementation
The Ministry of Economy launched a Europe-wide tender for the technology of a multilingual online marketplace. In a meticulous selection process, Platoyo won the contract due to its "Platform as a Service" concept, its feature diversity, the price-performance ratio, the speed of implementation, and its many experiences in building and operating complex marketplaces.
The ministry's vision - to initiate a nationwide online platform for citizens and retailers - requires strong supporters. The Ministry of Economy of Luxembourg is founding the operating company "Luxembourg for Shopping" with 17 cities and municipalities of the Grand Duchy. Each municipality contributes one euro per inhabitant per year to the overall budget of the project. The CLC (Confédération Luxembourgeoise du Commerce) and the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce also provide financial and communications support for the platform project.
Another essential component is the configuration of payment and logistics processes. An API interface to the shipping service is set up for the transfer of order data. The delivery of the goods is handled by the logistics company Michel Greco.
Philippe Herremans (Project Manager Letzshop)
Onboarding and own dealer academy
The Letzshop team has set up a dedicated information page for dealers to facilitate knowledge transfer (https://academy.letzshop.lu/).
Together with the Platoyo team, onboarding is made as easy as possible for the dealers. A photographer puts the traders and the store in the best possible light, because good and authentic pictures are the basis for an appealing attractive presentation of the traders. The basic profiles also show customers all the important information such as the address, opening hours and services of the vendors
In the second step of the onboarding process, the various merchandise management systems are linked to letzshop.lu so that inventories and product information are automatically synchronized with the online platform and consumers can check product availability online. For the connection of the merchandise management system to the platform, data formats and types of delivery are irrelevant thanks to the Platoyo data transformer. The automated translation of product data is ensured with the help of artificial intelligence ("DeepL").
Screenshot Letzshop Academy for dealers.
Screenshot RTL integrates Letzshop into its own portal.
Communication & Cooperations
An important task for the success of letzshop.lu is the communication of the platform to the public. The citizens of Luxembourg must be made aware of local online shopping and the associated regional added value. The Letzshop team is supported in this by the local media agency e-connect.
Another important pillar of the communication are cooperations, among others with RTL Luxembourg. On the Luxembourg website of Europe's largest TV broadcaster, Letzshop's offers are mirrored thanks to the extensive Platoyo interfaces and visitors can order directly via the RTL website.
Actions during the Corona Pandemic
During the first wave of the Corona pandemic, Platoyo was able to provide support in setting up emergency supplies for vulnerable people. Within a few days, a second shopping platform was opened where food could be ordered online or by phone. Logistics were organized through a temporary warehouse at the airport.
To mitigate the economic impact of the Corona pandemic on the local tourism industry, the Ministry of Economy issued a EUR 50 hotel voucher to every citizen and cross-border worker over the age of 18. Platoyo's voucher system automatically managed the vouchers, worth a total of EUR 36.5 million, including reloading, validation and settlement.
The voucher system is now an integral part of letzshop.lu, i.e. users can buy vouchers online and redeem them on letzshop.lu or on site in participating stores.
Letzshop - voucher started as a hotel voucher and can now be redeemed in many participating stores.
Resume
The sales figures of the more than 500 participants show that the platform is very well accepted and used by the citizens. The merchants come from all sectors with very different backgrounds and in some cases very successfully manage their company's entire e-commerce activities via the easy-to-use Letzshop platform.
The project in NUMBERS
- 500 dealers
- 400.000 products
- 50.000 customers
Impressions
Kontakt
Philippe Herremans
Luxembourg for Shopping GIE
Projektleiter
philippe.herremans@letzshop.lu
Tel: (+352) 26 43 00 94 - 24
Carolin Erber
Platoyo
Consultant Platforms & Marketplaces
carolin.erber@platoyo.com
Tel: +49 8654 774 17 22
Schedule a free presentation