Overview
"You can find us everywhere you need us” is the motto of Lafka shops, part of the large Bulgarian retail chain “Tabac Market” that includes 850 stores in over 70 cities. As a modern and innovative retail chain of convenience stores, Lafka offers goods such as food, beverages, magazines, tobacco, mobile operator services and lottery tickets. Convenient locations and fast service have always been the priority for this retailer.
The Challenge
The Tabac Market retail chain faced the challenge of implementing and maintaining a retail automation system that could cover all the Lafka convenience stores, even in the most remote locations. Lafka shops and kiosks, often found in difficult to reach villages, required a reliable partner able to provide support anytime and anywhere. The company had to guarantee fast service to all its customers.
The Solution
Tabac Market analyzed several offers and gave Lafka employees the opportunity to test different brands of bar code scanners to determine which best suited their needs in terms of speed, ease of use and ergonomics. Workers ultimately chose the Touch™ TD1120 reader from Datalogic. This small, lightweight and comfortable scanner proved to be an extremely reliable and resistant solution, ideal for the checkout at busy retail Lafka stores.
Eltrade, a Datalogic partner, implemented an automation system for checkout using the Touch bar code reader, along with retail software called Detelina. All 850 sites received the solution, from large cities to small and remote Bulgarian villages. The RS232 communication used by the readers made data transfer reliable, even from Lafka stores in the remotest locations with no electricity.
The Results
"Datalogic and Eltrade fulfilled all our requirements in a highly professional manner and were very responsive to our needs. We have noticed an increase in productivity and sales since the system has been put into use,” stated the executive director of Tabac Market, Victor Nalbantov. This project helped establish a successful business model that Tabac Market will continue to use in the future. The centralized solution allows sales processes and delivery to be automated for the numerous Lafka kiosks all over the country, leading to better organization and improved customer service.
Customer: Tabac Market for Lafka convenience stores
Industry: Retail/Specialty Retail
Application: POS checkout
Country: Bulgaria
Datalogic Product: Touch reader
Datalogic Partner: Eltrade
