The first virtual supermarket in Europe | Key4Communications |

The supermarket chain company Sorli Discau has opened Sorli Virtual, the first virtual supermarket of Europe, which came into operation last wednesday. This new virtual point of sale, which is situated at a railway station in Barcelona (Spain), offers more than 400 products for buying through the mobile phone. Sorli Virtal, which will stand in pilot phase during six month, consists of a sheet with the image of a linear with the image of different articles in it. To buy something, users should photograph the QR code assigned to each item with its smartphone. Later, the products purchased by the buyer are distributed at his home after the consumer has received a call to check the delivery schedule of the purchase in the home, which should be located in the same district in which is located the virtual supermarket. Prior to the purchase, customers must have registered as users on the website of the supermarket.
Although Sorli Virtual is the first virtual supermarket in Europe, there are already similar experiences of virtual supermarkets in the United States, Australia and South Korea, all of them focusing on the feeding sector.

According to Julio Santos-Olmo, director of the group, the virtual supermarket is proposed as an alternative to purchasing traditional formulas that take place with the presence of the consumer at the physical point of sale. The company plans to capture between 10% and 15% of the 10,000 daily passengers passing by the station where it is installed, so, it is expected that the volume of sales and customers will be similar to a physical sale point.
The project technology has been developed by the supermarket chain and represents an investment of 60,000 euros. Sorli Discau, a family owned company born in 1923 in Barcelona, has a network of 97 supermarkets and recorded a turnover of EUR 200 million per year.