Salling Group: Offering superior shopping experiences through rapid adoption of AI-enabled innovations
Elevating the shopping experience with AI
With its motto “Every day better,” Salling Group A/S is constantly striving to find ways to improve operational efficiency while enhancing shopping experiences. Convinced that harnessing new AI-based technologies can help it achieve this, the retailer is excited about the possibilities offered by SAP Business AI and the Joule copilot.
| Industry | Region | Company Size |
| Retail | Brabrand, Denmark | 68,000 employees |
Chief Enterprise Architect, Salling Group A/S
Adapting to evolving shopping patterns by adopting the latest technology
With a history spanning more than 100 years, Salling Group runs a network of supermarkets, hypermarkets, department stores, and toy stores. Working to make everyday life easier for customers and ensure the best shopping experiences, the retailer welcomes more than 15 million customers each week at more than 2,100 stores in Denmark, Germany, Poland, and the Baltic states.
The company considers an in-depth understanding of its data to be crucial if it’s to meet customer needs and maintain a competitive edge. For example, it needs information on customer behavior to inform marketing strategies and formulate promotions. In addition, timely updates on stock availability are essential for effective stock management—avoiding lost sales resulting from stockouts while running more sustainably by reducing waste.
To better respond to evolving shopping behaviors, Salling Group is turning to cutting-edge technologies—particularly AI-enabled solutions—to unlock data-driven insights and stay ahead of changing customer needs.
Executive Vice President and CIO, Salling Group A/S
Transforming retail with the latest AI technologies
Salling Group is an established SAP customer, using software such as the SAP Datasphere solution to help provide transparency and ready access to data across the company. However, it understands that the use of AI is key to unlocking the full potential of its data to deliver increased value to the business.
To this end, the retailer is currently in the process of a major, multiyear upgrade to an SAP Cloud ERP Private solution. This next-generation ERP will provide a solid foundation for AI-based innovation, enabling Salling Group to take advantage of the latest SAP Business AI capabilities within existing process workflows.
The migration to SAP Cloud ERP Private will also offer employees support from the Joule copilot. Taking on the heavy lifting for routine, low-value activities such as collating information, Joule provides staff with recommendations as they work on tasks, improving productivity and helping them make better-informed decisions. Assisted by Joule, staff will be able to spend more time on the store floor, interacting with customers and delivering superior shopping experiences.
Gaining competitive advantage by pioneering AI in retail
Looking forward to using SAP Business AI and Joule with SAP Cloud ERP Private, Salling Group anticipates being able to rethink the way it does business. With AI, it can increase agility, drive operational efficiency, and provide customers with outstanding shopping experiences, helping it stay competitive in a challenging market.
The retailer believes that AI-driven capabilities will help increase the accuracy of its forecasting, enabling it to allocate products more precisely to specific stores. This can help ensure that the company has the right stock in the right place at the right time to meet customer demand, reducing waste due to overstocking or stocking the wrong products for a particular location.
Salling Group also looks to AI to help make operations more transparent by allowing faster access to information. Automatic report generation based on a request submitted through Joule, for example, could save significant time for employees—eliminating the need to manually open a system and define time periods and other criteria.
Meanwhile, investment in the latest AI-based technology makes Salling Group an appealing place to work for top-tier IT talent. The company’s position as a pioneer in the adoption of AI in retail is attracting some of the brightest IT minds, helping the company achieve its ambitious innovation agenda.
Chief Enterprise Architect, Salling Group A/S