Spryker and METRO-NOM: New e-commerce partnership in Berlin

The first joint 3-month pilot project will go live in Romania in 2018. The focus of this collaboration is an online shop specifically oriented to the needs of METRO’s Trader customers, for example small food stores or kiosks. The online shop was developed jointly by IT experts at the METRO-NOM software development hub in Berlin on the basis of a flexible, modular e-commerce solution from Spryker. Further joint projects in the future are to primarily be realised here. The goal: to strengthen and expand the Berlin location and achieve faster international scalability for need-based IT solutions for wholesale customers.

‘Romania is a country with a strong Trader focus – and the needs of these customers differ from those of our HoReCa customers in such areas as product range, price groups and marketing,’ says Timo Salzsieder, Chief Information and Chief Solution Officer (CIO/CSO) of METRO and CEO of METRO-NOM. ‘Accordingly, the user interfaces of the two webshops differ as well. Spryker provides us with a basis: a flexible, modular system to rapidly and individually adapt the range of functions of our online shops to country- and customer-specific requirements. We can also connect the online shops with the standard M-Shop components, like article and price calculations, via open interfaces. In the future, thanks to the closer collaboration with Spryker in Berlin, we will be also able to scale faster internationally.’

‘The close collaboration in Berlin between METRO-NOM and Spryker is creating a synergy that takes wholesale excellence and technology to a new level, as well as facilitating exponential growth,’ says Alexander Graf, founder and CEO of Spryker. ‘Competition for good skilled workers, especially in the field of IT, makes it necessary to create highly attractive offers. This is something we have achieved by combining the sought-after Spryker commerce technology with METRO, one of the world’s biggest wholesalers. This combination will make it easier in future for METRO to attract the most highly sought-after employees in Berlin.’

METRO-NOM in Berlin

In Germany, as in Romania, METRO-NOM develops digital solutions for the e-commerce business as well as for the worldwide IT needs of the METRO. While METRO’s international business models differ from one country to another, they are all served, harmonised and supported by IT solutions from METRO-NOM. The METRO tech unit has operated under the name METRO-NOM since May 2018, and has repositioned itself. ‘We have around 2,000 employees worldwide,’ says Salzsieder. ‘They’re divided about equally between Germany and Romania, and we’re adding more. We currently have about 40 colleagues working in Berlin, and we want to grow into the triple-digit range here in the coming years.’ Early evidence of the expansion of METRO’s activities in the digital business can be seen in the opening of the software development hub at the former transformer station in Kreuzberg and the founding partnership with the CODE University in Berlin.

METRO is a leading international specialist in wholesale and food retail. The company operates in 35 countries and employs more than 150,000 people worldwide. In financial year 2016/17, METRO generated sales of around €37 billion. The company provides custom solutions to meet the regional and international needs of its wholesale and retail customers. With its sales brands METRO/MAKRO Cash & Carry and Real as well as delivery services and digitalisation initiatives METRO sets the standards for tomorrow: for customer focus, digital solutions and sustainable business models.

METRO-NOM GmbH is the tech unit of METRO, a leading international wholesale and food specialist company. METRO-NOM provides customized IT services and IT solutions for all METRO countries worldwide. About 2,000 team members are located in Germany and our international locations, offering a wide range of capabilities, such as consulting on business processes, development, implementation and support of business solutions, operating data centers and networks as well as supervision of the IT equipment. More information at www.metronom.com.

Spryker Systems is a German software vendor for B2C and B2B commerce solutions. The company employs over 200 people and is one of the leading providers in Europe. Business models of any kind can be mapped with the help of the Spryker Commerce OS. Spryker distributes its API-first software with a focus on customizable commerce business models to provide companies with a perfectly tailored solution. This includes the integration of complex business processes, complex data requirements, the implementation of a customer-friendly omnichannel strategy and a seamless and cost-efficient connection to third-party systems. Behind these possibilities are Spryker's modular software structure and the separation of backend and frontend interfaces (smartphone, desktop, voice, IoT applications), which guarantee the highest possible performance and provide the basis for agile project execution. For companies with digitization projects, Spryker replaces the standard solutions of software providers in order to advance IT innovations faster and more efficiently. More information at spryker.com.