Norway’s Fastest Growing Online Supermarket, Kolonial.no, Chooses RELEX to Support Further Growth

RELEX to help Kolonial.no to handle the increasing complexity of their supply chain

Oda (formerly Kolonial.no) has experienced rapid growth. Today, the company employs 450 people and has an assortment of nearly 6,000 products that are distributed through its central warehouse, situated close to Oslo, Norway. Dinner recipe ideas and groceries at low prices are either delivered to the customer’s home address or a pick-up point. The combination of a challenging business model and the strong growth of customer demand requires careful planning and management of its supply chain. With its expertise within fresh foods, RELEX will support Kolonial.no to ensure availability, sell more, reduce wastage and cut costs through better replenishment and order picking.

By running an online grocery store, Kolonial.no is facing several challenges and considerable effort is spent to convince and convert new customers. If the assortment is too narrow, if quality inconsistencies or out-of-stocks situations occur, it is easy for the customer to take their shopping elsewhere, such as a physical store or other online stores. Kolonial.no puts the customer at the center of its decisions, and RELEX will help to keep the customer satisfaction level at a maximum.

While our previous solution was no longer optimal, the RELEX team quickly identified our challenges and showed us how the flexible RELEX system handles these.

“For us, it is crucial that each delivery exceeds the customer’s expectations,” says Tor Erik Aag, Commercial Director at Kolonial.no. “While our previous solution was no longer optimal, the RELEX team quickly identified our challenges and showed us how the flexible RELEX system handles these. Weekly or seasonal demand fluctuations are factored in to provide precise forecasts, and the weather-based function ensures that fresh strawberries are available when the summer finally arrives. By adding promotions into the system and by smoothing out sales peaks, we can plan our weekly dinner suggestions better, which can have a big effect on demand for some items.”

It handles all aspects of automatic replenishment including coordinated orders, promotion and season handling, as well as customer forecasting.

RELEX’s “all-in-one system” will facilitate better collaboration within the organization. It handles all aspects of automatic replenishment including coordinated orders, promotion and season handling, as well as customer forecasting. Weather-based forecasts are also included, as is handling of fresh foods, fruits and vegetables. Kolonial.no will also have the opportunity to build its own business logic in the graphical user interface without the need of support from external consultants.

“We have high expectations for this project. Our impression is that the RELEX team consists of solution-oriented people with extensive knowledge and experience within the retail sector. We are looking forward to taking advantage of this expertise,” says Aag.

Ida Myran, Business Manager at RELEX Solutions, is also looking forward to starting the project. “It’s incredibly fun to work so closely with a company that has so much in common with RELEX. Both companies have experienced rapid growth and we find the corporate culture and business mentality to be very similar. We look forward to working closely with these talented people in this new and exciting industry.”

About Kolonial.no
Kolonial.no is the largest online food retailer in Norway. It offers a wide selection of groceries and dinner recipe ideas, which are either delivered to the customer’s home address or a pick-up point. Prices are kept low with the cooperation with one of Norway’s largest food retailer, REMA 1000. Also, short-travelled food is offered through collaboration with local producers.
In 2013, the ten founders of Kolonial.no had the goal to create the best grocery-shopping experience in Norway, and to make their customers’ life easier. Today, Kolonial.no is the fastest growing company within its category in the Nordics.

More information: https://kolonial.no/