To ensure that eco-products are truly organic, Lidl Sweden’s employees check their incoming products daily. With Lidl’s increasing focus on sustainability and environmental friendliness, their range of eco-friendly products continues to grow. Therefore, making the inspection process as efficient as possible was necessary. Lidl Sweden was looking for a solution to improve the process so that employees would no longer have to perform time-consuming manual checks but could quickly verify whether the incoming products met the necessary organic standards.
The collaboration with LINKIT resulted in developing the Eco-products App, an application built on the low-code platform Mendix. The new app allows store personnel to check whether products meet the stated requirements more quickly and accurately. At the same time, Lidl’s headquarters gained a tool to follow up on the control process.
In this article, Emmeli (Product Owner for Lidl Sweden), Åsa (Project Manager at Lidl Sweden), and Martin (Developer at LINKIT) share everything about the process of creating the application, which is the largest app roll-out for Lidl Sweden up to date.
Swift and seamless eco-checks
Before introducing the Eco-products App, checking eco-friendly products was done with the help of paper lists. Employees would go through these lists in search of organic products and then inspect them in the store to check their organic labels and origins, for example. The process wasn’t only time-consuming but also prone to errors. “We wanted to find a way to make these checks more efficient and accurate,” Emmeli explains. “The manual process was time-demanding, and it was hard for the employees to keep track of all checkpoints.”
Since EU regulations require strict checks on organic products, Lidl Sweden looked for a way to streamline the process. Next to that, they wanted a better overview of the compliance in the different stores. LINKIT had already shown its expertise in Mendix in a collaboration with Lidl The Netherlands, which made them the ideal partner to work with for the Swedish company as well.
A speedy collaboration for a speedy build in Mendix
The choice for building the application in Mendix was made due to the speed at which the application could be developed and its scalability. Lidl is happy with the platform. “Mendix allows us to develop quickly without having to code everything from scratch,” Åsa explains.
In close collaboration with LINKIT, the app’s development was divided into three sprints, using the scrum framework to structure the progress. “It was our first large Mendix project, and LINKIT helped us not only with the technical implementation but also with streamlining our project management,” says Åsa. Martin adds: “The team worked together really well and it was great to have a Product Owner who made sure to always be available. You could really see that because of this good collaboration, together with using scrum, we were able to develop both quickly and steadily.”
The Eco-products App is available on the mobile devices used in Lidl stores. Through the app, store employees get a daily update to see which products need to be checked. They can then easily verify and register whether a product meets the organic requirements. On the other hand, the desktop version provides detailed reports for Lidl Sweden’s headquarters, as it maps out the execution of these checks for all stores.
Being creative and flexible in finding solutions
Although the development of the app went smoothly, there were certainly some technical challenges. For example, Lidl Sweden’s business information is stored in Snowflake, a cloud service to which LINKIT didn’t have access. Yet, specific information from that cloud was needed for the app, as Martin explains: “To test the functionality, we needed that data from Snowflake. Fortunately, Edin, the internal developer at Lidl Sweden, ensured we received it in time, so the project didn’t face delays.” Another challenge was to implement how the app could recognize which store the employee using the app is in. “Thanks to a creative solution that makes use of URL numbers, the app knows exactly in which store it is active without asking the employee for input,” Martin smiles. Thanks to the involvement of Benjamin, UX designer at LINKIT, the team worked with extensive user stories right from the start. This helped make the app’s flow intuitive and resulted in a highly user-friendly product.
Emmeli emphasizes the importance of having a partner who can think along for such challenges: “We didn’t just need an external partner with technical expertise, but also someone flexible and solution-oriented. LINKIT delivered on that.” Martin laughs and adds, “But it worked both ways. For example, during the project, there wasn’t always enough time to build everything exactly according to the designs. We discussed using existing Mendix widgets to ensure functionality was kept intact, and it was great for us that Lidl was happy to agree with that.”
From the first test to the far future
Although the app won’t be fully rolled out in all Lidl Sweden stores until this fall, its impact is already clear: employees can work more efficiently, and the main office has better insights into the compliance of the checks. Additionally, a significant advantage is that the app can store information, for instance to use for reporting.
While the app is currently built to check on organic products, it has the potential for much broader applications. Both Lidl and LINKIT see various opportunities to expand the app further. The same technology could easily be used for other inspection processes, such as inventory management or the quality control of regular products. “The flexibility of both the app and the Mendix platform allows us to make quick adjustments and add new functionalities if needed,” Martin explains.
Therefore, the close collaboration between Lidl Sweden and LINKIT led not only to an innovative solution but also to a strong partnership. As Emmeli puts it, “Thanks to their technical expertise and commitment to the project, we felt we were absolutely in good hands!”
