Technology experts

Kesko gives its customers the opportunity to change the world and increase their wellbeing with every purchase. For a long time, K-Ruoka has been helping K-Plussa customers make more responsible and healthier purchase choices for a long time.

Back in 2019 we introduced the K-Ostokset service, which allows users to analyse their grocery purchases and track the carbon footprint of the purchases and how much of them were produced locally in Finland. The service has also helped customers track the sugar, salt, vegetable, fish and red meat content of their purchases.

In 2023, this service was taken to an entirely new level with the launch of the new K-Hyvinvointi wellbeing service, introduced as a new feature in the K-Ruoka app.

K-Hyvinvointi supports comprehensive personal wellbeing for app users, focusing on nutritional health. The feature combines data on purchases registered using a K-Plussa card with background information provided by the user, then tells the user to what extent their grocery purchases mirror national nutritional recommendations. This lays the foundation for seeking healthier grocery choices. The feature allows its users to set objectives based on national nutritional recommendations and then track progress made in achieving those objectives in the app. It also offers recommendations on products and recipes to help the user along the way.

With its vast amounts of customer data, selections and a network built around food provide, Kesko has the opportunity to address customer needs in an increasingly comprehensive way. The vast amount of data on the customer purchases combined with background information and expert recommendations create a foundation that can be used to guide customers towards healthier choices.

The potential of artificial intelligence and analytical capabilities is utilised extensively. Kesko uses a wide range of AI technologies and applications based on its own data science and AI development, as well as the best off the shelf solutions from reliable suppliers.

The purpose of self-developed AI solutions is to deliver differentiating benefits to customers and business, almost always based on individual customer data and one or more specific data sources. Alongside this, off the-shelf AI applications that are widely available on the market are also used to support operational efficiency and optimisation, as well as management, customer insight and decision-making.

Centralised AI and analytics functions collaborate with teams in each business division. This combination of centralised and business-specific resources ensures that the approach remains very business-driven and scalable but also agile enough to allow rapid development and launch
of new applications and features for customers and other stakeholders using different services.

Kesko’s data science and analytics capabilities support in particular the creation of customer experience and customer insight, implementation of store-specific business ideas, forecasting, pricing, optimisation of goods
flows and market analysis.

Operating on Kesko’s scale means it is possible to achieve major benefits and digital economies of scale using the scalable capabilities of software robotics and automated systems. They automate routine and repetitive tasks, reduce errors and improve efficiency, which saves money and improves the customer experience.

Kesko utilises process redesign in its enterprise resource planning (ERP) system and is strongly increasing its use of software robotics and other automation solutions. In 2023, Kesko automated, for example, invoice processing, processes related to campaigns and establishing store products, and complaints handling. The number of automated Kesko processes nearly doubled in 2023, totalling more than 350 at the end of the years.

Online grocery sales now have a strong customer base after the breakthrough that took place at the beginning of the decade. Online grocery sales grew by 5.7% in 2023, and accounted for 2.3% of B2C grocery sales. Since 2020, Kesko’s online grocery sales have increased by over 400%. In B2C online grocery, nearly 730 K Group grocery stores offered online sales services in 2023.

Kesko launched a K-Citymarket online store in 2023, selling a wide range home leisure goods and textiles. The design of the online store focused on good search functions and filters, good product information and comprehensive delivery options.

The strengths of Kesko’s B2C online grocery operations include our comprehensive customer loyalty programme, unique product selections enabled by store-specific business ideas, the concept that combining the
strengths of online and physical stores, the market’s most extensive selection of up to 40,000 products, and flexible delivery options. The NPS for Kesko’s B2C online grocery sales was 79 at the end of 2023.

OnnSale, Onninen’s digital desktop launched in 2022, has made a flying start. The popularity is based on ease of use and improved work efficiency, as the app brings together all the relevant customer and product data in terms of the service that is being provided to the customer, as well as various applications, in the main view.

The service was developed with agile methods and in close cooperation with Onninen’s sales organisation.  The number of users and orders made have grown rapidly, and already almost 40% of Onninen’s orders are now made using OnnSale. The salesperson can utilise the time freed up by not having to use background systems to better identify and respond to customer needs and prepare quotes. This improves both sales performance and customer experience.

OnnSale is centred around customer data, and Onninen’s uniquely comprehensive product offering and rich product information. Data from the customer’s previous orders, tracking of offers and deliveries, and other customer-specific data provide a good overall view of the customer’s situation.

OnnSale enables the salesperson to tell the customer about the supplies and tools needed for installing the product, read the documentation and help the customer purchase related products. The salesperson can also use OnnSale to provide information about the product’s sustainability, such as environmental certificates.

Analytics linked to OnnSale improve Onninen’s data capital and help gain increasingly deeper customer insight. Onninen uses the collected customer data responsibly in the development of its processes and product offering, and in sales and marketing.

In 2023, K-Auto renewed its system architecture for car sales and servicing and services visible to customers. This will help improve efficiency and streamline the customer experience.

The updated service booking feature automatically generates a recommendation for the vehicle based on age, mileage, service history and manufacturer's service schedule. The customer can choose the desired service location based on availability of locations and installers. A wide range of additional services, from washing and cleaning services to the purchase of new tyres, can be bought from the online store at the same time.

Customers appreciate convenience and a large part of bookings are now made online. Service customers are taken care of with a multichannel approach to ensure the service process is as easy as possible. The convenience of creating a car service package also encourages customers to take care of other matters related to car use – in the online store, sales of additional services can be even higher than when customers book their car service appointment with a customer service representative.

A significant share of the administrative processes in car sales is based on step-by-step workflows and the use of internal and external systems. Car
registrations, changes to insurance policies, test drive management, and financing and sales contract processes are highly automated at K-Auto.

K-Auto has aimed to automate most of the repetitive routine tasks, which has significantly sped up operations and freed up time in car sales for active sales work and customer service. The high automation rate with fast response times increased operational efficiency and also brings savings.