Finnish startup Digital Foodie has teamed up with a grocery retailer to install digital virtual stores at busy commuter locations in the capital Helsinki.
Virtual displays of food products carry barcodes which can be scanned using smartphones by consumers who belong to Digital Foodie’s social shopping platform, Foodie.fm.
The food thus ordered can then be delivered to their home the same day. The virtual stores feature products from S Group’s grocery chain Alepa, which also has around 80 conventional stores in the Helsinki area.
Using digital out-of-home media not just to promote sales but actually to complete them, the Helsinki project echoes other innovations by Tesco in South Korea and by Argos in Britain.Said Digital Foodie CEO Kalle Koutajoki: “Finns love their mobiles and technology that makes their everyday lives easier. Now with the virtual stores, Foodie.fm users can order food while waiting for the metro or tram, for example. S Group has been running personalised online stores with Foodie’s technology for a while now and the new virtual store is a natural extension to their service.”
Foodie.fm has 220,000 users, or about four percent of the Finnish population, and the service is now in beta trials in the UK too.
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