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Success Story
Casino Group cuts order times by up to 30% with Zebra
Casino Group prides itself on making its stores places for human connection, in cities and rural areas alike, and that means equipping staff with technology that frees them to focus on customers rather than back-office tasks.
Zebra Success Story: Casino Group
Overview: Retail Challenge
Casino Group's convenience-store division turned to Zebra to digitize and unify fragmented ordering processes across 4,500 franchise-owned convenience stores, giving store owners real-time visibility on warehouse stock and the ability to manage orders directly from the shop floor.
Benefits / Outcomes
- 20–30% reduction in time to complete an order
- Positive impact on revenue
- Zebra hardware ranked as the number one driver of store satisfaction
- Real-time stock visibility
- Full offline capability for stores with limited Wi-Fi coverage
Customer
Casino Group
France
Industry
Retail
Solutions
About Casino Group
When customers walk into a convenience store, they expect to find what they need and be on their way quickly. As one of France's leading mass-market retail groups, Casino Group has been delivering on that expectation since 1898. Today, its convenience brands, including Casino, Spar, and Vival, operate across a network of 4,500 stores, over 90% of them franchise-owned, with over 25,000 employees. The group prides itself on making its stores places for human connection, in cities and rural areas alike, and that means equipping staff with technology that frees them to focus on customers rather than back-office tasks.
To that end, Distribution Casino France (DCF), the group's convenience-store division, turned to Zebra Technologies to replace legacy devices and manual processes that had made restocking slow and cumbersome. "We want to offer our stores the same customer experience and ordering journey that a consumer has today when ordering something online, an easy way to search, clear product classification, and good visuals," says Guillaume Civat, Director of Digital Transformation and Operational Processes at Distribution Casino France.
The Challenge
Before the transformation, restocking a DCF store meant walking the aisles with a handheld terminal and scanning the barcodes of products that were running low to build up an order. For some categories, like fruit and vegetables, staff wrote orders down by hand at the shelf. They then walked to a PC in the office to validate the order through a legacy Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. “There was no way of knowing whether an item was actually available at the warehouse until after the order had been submitted, and if something was out of stock, the stores had to start again,” explains Civat. The process left room for improvement: orders took longer than necessary, stock-outs were only discovered after the fact, and shelves stayed empty while the back-and-forth played out.
To consolidate every ordering flow into a single tool, DCF built C Pro, its own business-to-business e-commerce platform. Putting this into action required reliable mobile devices that were light enough for all-day use without risking occupational injuries, and durable enough to survive inevitable drops. Scanning performance was equally important. “When scanning products, you're scanning shelf labels, which can be placed around 1.80 metres high, or at floor level. We wanted staff to be able to scan them without having to kneel down,” explains Civat. The devices also had to handle high-capacity order demands, with order baskets regularly reaching 800 to 1,000 products.
After testing two suppliers, the company found the right fit in its long-standing supplier, Zebra: the Zebra TC5 Series Mobile Computer and the Zebra ET4 Series Tablet. Zebra's team worked closely with the company throughout the rollout, providing hands-on support.
The time to complete an order has dropped by 20 to 30%, depending on the store. The stores can spend that time on improving things like their shelf layouts and customer service.
The Solution
Store owners adopted the TC5 mobile computers immediately, carrying them in a pocket to scan and place orders on the move. The ET4 tablet serves as a secondary device for browsing products and reviewing promotions, which is made easier by its larger screen. “The key change is autonomy,” shares Civat. “Store owners no longer need to return to the office to validate the order. They can now complete the entire process while standing next to a shelf.” To support uninterrupted workflows in any situation, the devices also work offline, allowing staff to build their orders without a Wi-Fi connection and sync them once a connection is available.
Through Zebra devices, store owners now have access to a smarter system that surfaces information such as new products and upcoming promotions. When an employee scans a product that is out of stock or has been delisted, the screen immediately suggests substitution recommendations powered by AI . “We went from a fairly static tool to an extremely dynamic one,” adds Civat.
Shoppers also enjoy the benefits of faster, more informed in-store customer service. When they ask about a product, employees can pull out the Zebra device and check availability, pricing, and delivery dates on the spot.
The Zebra Difference: Outcome and Benefits
Store feedback improved immediately. “Zebra hardware is the number one driver of satisfaction in our store network,” notes Civat. “This is because we introduced an easy-to-use, light, practical device, one that resembles what store owners use as consumers.” For DCF, that satisfaction is a commercial advantage, strengthening its brand image and helping attract new franchisees to the network.
Because store owners can now send orders without leaving the shop floor, the entire process moves faster. “The time to complete an order has dropped by 20 to 30%, depending on the store,” notes Civat. “The stores can spend that time on improving things like their shelf layouts and customer service.”
With real-time stock visibility and instant substitution suggestions, stores are placing more complete orders. “Overall, we estimate a positive impact on revenue since the rollout, which means a significant return on investment,” Civat adds. For DCF's warehouses, this also means fewer rejected orders and queries, and less stress.
DCF is already looking at what comes next. The company is considering Zebra's Workcloud Sync for pushing real-time notifications about delivery delays and order updates directly to store devices. “We've come a long way, from pen and paper to a fully mobile e-commerce platform,” says Civat. “We want to keep investing in as many mobile software solutions as possible to make our lives easier, and the trusting relationship we have with Zebra is what makes that possible.”
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