As Poslovni Dnevnik/Lucija Spiljak writes, in the near future, services will be available in Konzum stores; for a start in 60 of them where they have self-serving cash registers, and soon after in all 630 small, medium and large stores throughout the Republic of Croatia.
Noticing the growing interest in the use of cryptocurrencies in the world, including right here in Croatia, the largest domestic retail chain, Konzum, decided to turn more strongly to the younger population that has more or less totally embraced the cryptoworld, all in cooperation with Electrocoin, one of the fastest growing Croatian cryptocurrency brokerage companies.
“This is definitely a step into something new for Konzum and for the retail market in Croatia. We’re offering our customers some new opportunities and technologies. Konzum has proven its leading position in the market so many times when it comes to technological innovations, and we are, as with the introduction of Google Pay and Apple Pay, happy to have a new opportunity to improve the shopping experience in line with the latest trends. These investments are in line with the process of digital transformation of the Fortenova Group, including Konzum as its largest member,” stated Uros Kalinic, a member of the Management Board of Konzum who is in charge of finance and informatics.
The collaboration to make Konzum cryptocurrency payment possible began one year ago when Electrocoin experts brought Konzum’s team closer to the crypto market here in Croatia and showcased the affinity of domestic consumers for it.
“As this isn’t the first time that we’ve introduced new opportunities, our team is already in tune with it. The field of informatics, led by director Jozo Dzakul and director of the business applications sector Ines Barbir, is always up to the task, so this time too there were no surprises during the project. We applied an agile methodology for the project, it lasted a couple of months, several Konzum systems were included in the project, and Konzum Informatics, mStart, the team from Eletrocoin and other partners were all included. The testing itself lasted a couple of weeks and several teams participated in it, a total of about 20 people,” said Kalinic.
In this pre-Christmas period, the weight of what’s in the average shopping trolley increases, so this period is a great opportunity for customers to try out this method of payment. Kalinic pointed that out that he is happy that they can conclude a challenging year with such an innovation.
“Just like back in 2002 when we recognised the value of the market for buying groceries over the Internet, now we’re looking forward yet again and recognising the trends that are yet to come. Payment with cryptocurrencies is certainly still in its infancy here in Croatia, but the experience of our partner Electrocoin justifies this investment. Just as our customers use banking applications for electronic payments, we believe that this service will get its share as far as transactions go as well. From year to year we see a decrease in the share of cash transactions, which is logical in the age of digitalisation and coronavirus, when cash payments have been discouraged for epidemiological reasons.
This is a new option for some of our customers who are more technologically advanced, but also own cryptocurrencies. When we talk about the industry, I expect that some other chains will follow us in this step forward and that they’ll also recognise the potential in this new market segment. During the test period, we tried to anticipate possible obstacles that might await us. Of course, we’re ready for surprises and quick reaction in case of the need for some adjustments or corrections in the system,” added Kalinic.
Thanks, among other things, to Electrocoin, the Republuc of Croatia is growing in parallel with the rest of the world in the fast-growing cryptocurrency market. In February this year, they launched a kind of revolution in Croatia by announcing cooperation with Tifon, at whose fuel stations throughout Croatia people can pay for fuel in cryptocurrencies.
This cooperation made them accessible throughout Croatia, but also helped their visibility, which gave Electrocoin additional impetus, given that many new customers contacted them after the news of their cooperation with Tifon.
“Traffic is growing; last month, with 8.8 million kuna, we almost reached the ”mythical” 10 million kuna mark, which two years ago looked like a figure from the imagination, but this cooperation helped us attract both traders and buyers,” pointed out the head of Electrocoin, Nikola Skoric, who, back in February, announced several projects with some big players. He believes that their cooperation with Konzum and the ability to make Konzum cryptocurrency purchases will further increase the company’s turnover and enable them greater visibility, but this time – at the European level.
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