With its long-standing partner Prodistribution, the Casino Group is today opening “Le 4 Casino”*, a place to eat, relax and shop where digital services enhance and simplify the day-to-day shopping experience.
The store’s offering is unique, with a gourmet grocery aisle, a selection of Casino food items, a large proportion of organic and vegan products in the mix, exclusive products from guest brands and chefs, a Cdiscount showroom with a co-working space, and even a state-of-the-art wine cellar.
The shopping experience will be streamlined and enhanced by a variety of digital services enabling customers to shop 24/7 without going through a physical checkout, easily locate products in-store, choose from a broader range of products and services via digital interfaces, and find more detailed information about the products on offer.
For 120 years, the Casino Group has been innovating and taking convenience retailing to new levels by keeping pace with new consumer trends. With “Le 4 Casino”, launched on 3 October 2018, the Group aims to provide customers with a unique shopping experience and make their daily lives much easier. This unique concept store is the product of Casino’s knowledge and the expertise of its long-standing franchisee Prodistribution.
“Le 4 Casino”: using digital technology to enhance the retail experience
“Le 4 Casino” in on three floors, with a food selection giving pride of place to organic and locally sourced products and snacks, a smart wine and spirits cellar and, upstairs, Cdiscount’s first Parisian showroom presenting a range of the e-tailer’s best-selling products, and a free co-working area.
Visible from the street, the augmented reality digital display delivers a whole new experience for shoppers before they even enter the store. Once inside, customers can choose from a selection of carefully curated gourmet products, sample dishes concocted by a guest chef and do their daily shopping using a giant digital wall – the Picking Wall – through which they have access to the full range of products available from Casino’s online store (www.mescoursescasino.fr), for delivery that evening.
A project harnessing expertise from start-ups and well-known brands
The innovations delivered by “Le 4 Casino” are the collaborative achievement of around fifteen different partners from the retail industry. Technology is harnessed to enhance the customer experience by offering creative new services such as in-store product mapping and shopping route management, and innovative solutions to provide fully personalised shopper assistance and a fast, easy checkout. These state-of-the-art services and technologies are a sign of things to come in the Group’s other stores.
Jean-Charles Naouri, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Casino Group, said: “The retail business is now innovation-centric, and this goes beyond mere technology. In the future, the gap between brick-and-mortar and digital stores will close. Physical and digital distribution channels will not only need to adapt to tastes and trends but also to anticipate them. This new concept embodies an entirely new mindset based on constant adaptation, with a view to more effectively anticipating and meeting consumer expectations while maintaining close, trusting relationships with the customers who shop at our banners.”
Tina Schuler, Chief Executive Officer of Géant, Casino Supermarkets and Leader Price, commented: “Le 4 Casino is a new store concept that will decisively change the face of shopping for French customers. We were intent on creating a place that would make shopping easy and fun, where customers can test and taste products before buying and even eat in-store, at any time of the day or night.”
Moez Alexandre Zouari, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Prodistribution, long-standing franchisee of the Casino Group and partner of the “Le 4 Casino” project, said: “Retailers need to reinvent themselves while retaining their core values of communication, assistance and product quality. Le 4 Casino was borne out of this belief. At a time when people are expressing uncertainty about the future of brick-and-mortar stores and when retailers are rolling out automated sales outlets, I believe on the contrary that the human aspect is all the more vital.
That’s why we have imagined a place where guest brands, chefs and craft producers can come and really interact with shoppers and present their products, all at the local level. A warm, lively atmosphere with actual people is the key to retail success. Technology can enable without being intrusive and we can create a new enhanced customer experience.”
Emmanuel Grenier, Chairman of Cdiscount, added: “We are delighted to open this first Cdiscount showroom in Paris, presenting the best of the innovations and trends developed for our customers. It combines boldness and proximity – our core values of the last 20 years, which guide us in our everyday relationships with our customers, whether their interests lie in home design or selecting the right bottle of wine. This new space is an opportunity for us to showcase our idea of the customer experience: a streamlined, multichannel approach, tailored to everyday life. We open just after this autumn’s French Days promotional drive, further proof that French e-commerce is robust.”
Partners in the project include Reinsdyr, Panasonic, IBM, SFD, XXII, Find & Order, Alkemics, SES-Imagotag, ITAB, Eyetrust, TWIL, GreenYellow, 3hProd, Ergo Concepts and Qarnot.
* “Le 4 Casino” is located at 4, avenue Franklin Roosevelt in Paris – Open 24/7 (from 12 p.m. to 7:30 a.m. for customers of the Casino Max mobile app available from app stores).
