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bet365 ボーナス i Challenges
Further Strengthening the Domestic CVS Food Sector
Providing our everyday lives with a richer, safer, bet365 ボーナスore secure world of food
Further Strengthening the Domestic CVS Food Sector
Providing our everyday lives with a richer, safer, bet365 ボーナスore secure world of food
Seven-Eleven’s Challenges
August 2024
Seven-Eleven has cultivated a ready-made meal market through our attention to details such as taste and quality. Here, we describe how we will further refine this attention to detail to take on the challenge of providing food that meets the ever-changing needs of now.
Meeting the needs of daily food in an era of constant change
In May 2024, Seven-Eleven celebrated the 50th anniversary of opening our first store. During this period of non-stop change in social and lifestyle environments, we were able to satisfy customer needs in each new generation. Of particular note was our cultivation of a ready-made meal market by developing core products such as rice balls and lunch boxes.
However, customer behavior patterns have changed dramatically since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. We fundamentally reexamined the role of stores that were impacted by changing flows of people, introducing measures to give customers a reason to visit stores. These included holding fairs or other events every month to motivate customers to visit stores and providing food that is popular both in Japan and overseas.
In May 2023, COVID-19 was reclassified as a Class 5 infectious disease on bet365 ボーナスame level as seasonal influenza, and the flow of people recovered. However, customer behavior did not fully return to pre-pandemic patterns. This is why we started to analyze the locations of sales areas in detail and are seeking to develop product lineups suitable for each sales area. We have moved away from our previous one-format merchandise policy and are now focusing on creating individual stores that are attractive to customers in their local communities.
A key method for getting local customers to truly understand the value of our stores and use them for everyday shopping is to increase the appeal of core products that customers purchase frequently. Particularly since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, many new types of businesses have entered the ready-made meal market. In response, we are refining our core products not only for basic features such as taste and quality, but also in terms of appearance, portion size, and price. In this way, we are developing merchandise that customers will choose in their everyday lives.
Seven-Eleven’s high-quality, safe, and secure merchandise is supported by a collaborative system that transcends industry barriers
Previously, to commercialize our rice balls and lunch boxes, we collaborated with our business partners to establish an independent system made up of factories that only manufacture our products.
As we expanded the areas where we opened stores, in 1979 we established the Nihon Delica Foods Association (NDF) that consisted of many food production companies. The aim of NDF was to improve hygiene management levels and eliminate quality differences between areas.
NDF continued to constantly evolve, becoming involved in joint purchasing of raw ingredients, joint development of merchandise, and bet365 ボーナスharing of recipes. Currently, NDF has 172 factories operating across Japan (as of February 2024). The fundamental purpose of NDF’s initiatives is to consistently raise the level of hygiene management to deliver safe and secure products to customers.
This serious attitude toward hygiene management also plays a role in keeping food fresh for longer. Prolonging the freshness of lunch boxes and side dishes is important for preventing sales losses by extending food expiration dates, and it also helps reduce food loss. The reason we could achieve this without over-relying on food additives is because we raised our hygiene management levels. Of course, we also needed to develop new technologies and innovation that were appropriate for the characteristics of the food.
For example, in products using rice such as rice balls and lunch boxes, we wanted to ensure that the taste of the main ingredient of rice does not deteriorate much over time. We collaborated with Hachidaime Gihey , an illustrious restaurant specializing in rice, to gain expertise about rice blending and prevent rice from deteriorating over time.
We also developed a method for our Cup Deli original side dishes where we charge the food packaging with nitrogen gas to prevent oxidation, which makes the freshness last longer without affecting taste.
All these initiatives are based on our goal of delivering safe and secure food, which we have pursued relentlessly over many years. It is because we have made steady progress in quality management to achieve this that we have been able to develop unique products that are dedicated to good taste and freshness.
Focusing Group capabilities to create an even richer world of food
As we continue to refine our core products to encourage daily visits by customers, we are gaining valuable knowledge from bet365 ボーナスIP Store that we opened in Matsudo City, Chiba, in February 2024. This store is developing a product lineup based on a partnership with Ito Yokado.
Currently, many new businesses are entering the ready-made meal market, such as supermarkets and drug stores. To offer products that satisfy customers from bet365 ボーナスtandpoints of taste, quality, appearance, portion size, and price, there are many things we can learn from Ito Yokado’s know-how in bet365 ボーナスuperstore business.
bet365 ボーナスIP Store handles fresh food and it collaborates with Ito Yokado in the areas of product procurement and store merchandise management.
In addition, we are learning about customer needs and new possibilities for products with high sales potential from the best-selling merchandise of 7NOW. This delivery service is currently recommended at 14,500 stores (as of August 1, 2024).
As declining birthrate and aging population trends accelerate, there will be ever-increasing demand for the ability to do all one’s shopping near home.
We believe that our key mission is to respond to these needs in full and provide safe and secure daily food in a richer variety. By putting everything that we have learned from bet365 ボーナスIP Store and 7NOW back into our product development and lineup, we will generate new appeal for Seven-Eleven.
Opening the doors to the next-generation Seven-Eleven by anticipating the future domestic marke
「SIP Store」
A test store combining multiple product categories
On February 29, we opened our SIP Store near the north exit of Tokiwadaira Station in Matsudo City, Chiba. We opened this test store to anticipate the future business of Seven-Eleven.
bet365 ボーナスales area of bet365 ボーナスtore has a social structure that is similar to the average market in Japan in terms such as age and income level. We determined that this would be a good location to test how to achieve future sustainable growth in the domestic market.
From April 2023, we started developing ideas for the layout and lineup of bet365 ボーナスIP Store. In December of bet365 ボーナスame year, we started the renewal of the existing directly operated store. The test store consists of a product lineup of 5,300 items on a sales floor of about 290 ㎡.
bet365 ボーナスtandard Seven-Eleven store has a sales floor area of about 150 ㎡ and product lineup of about 3,300 items. Thus, the test store has a sales floor nearly twice bet365 ボーナスize of a conventional store and over 2,000 more items.
bet365 ボーナスIP Store has a wide variety of unique features. One example is the wide lineup of merchandise that it offers for home cooking, such as fruit, vegetables, meat, and fresh fish. Also, in addition to the enlarged sales floor area for frozen food and the increase in the number of product items, the counter has been made longer than in existing stores. This enables bet365 ボーナスIP Store to take on the challenge of providing not only the fried, steamed, and boiled food of existing stores, but also introducing a new bakery function. As a result, bet365 ボーナスtore can offer baked bread and baked sweets, such as cookies, together with coffee, tea, or smoothies from Seven Café. The range of fast food (FF) available at the counter has also expanded.
However, we do not intend just to copy this scale of store and apply it to other Seven-Eleven stores from now on. Rather, our aim is to use the testing results that we obtain from bet365 ボーナスIP Store to renew product lineups at existing stores and develop original merchandise, such as Seven Premium.
Leveraging Group synergies to expand range of handled items
In recent years, competition has become more fierce in the ready-made meal market, where customers purchase side dishes or other meals to eat at home. This is due to entry into the market by other businesses, such as drug stores.
In this context, it has become essential for us to meet the daily needs of our customers by providing a lineup with a good balance between ready-made meals and products for home cooking. We need to combine fresh food with merchandise in bet365 ボーナスo-called daily food category, consisting of products such as tofu and nerimono fish pastes, which are both ready-to-eat and can be used as cooking ingredients.
To do this, the SIP Store collaborates with Ito Yokado to procure fresh produce bet365 ボーナスanage merchandise. The SIP Store has leveraged this knowledge to increase the composition ratio of products for home cooking to 40% of the total. Also, managing merchandise such as fresh fish bet365 ボーナスeat is difficult to do on the sales floor. We reduced the burden on store staff by collaborating with Peace Deli, a part of our shared Group infrastructure, to provide such food as packaged products.
Furthermore, we leveraged our Group synergies to deploy special product sections, such as one with popular cosmetics from the Loft store. Another is stocked with Akachan Honpo baby products, such as milk and baby food.
As a result of these initiatives, the SIP Store increased its visits by female customers in their 40s and 50s to 1.4 times more than before renewal. According to data from 7iD, a common membership platform for the bet365 ボーナス i Group, women now make up 65% of the store’s customers.
One result contrary to our expectations was that many elderly customers started to visit bet365 ボーナスtore in the morning. This was due to the expansion in the lineup of products that can be used in home cooking. We realized that our product composition before renewal was not meeting the needs of elderly customers living nearby.
We were able to obtain such insights because bet365 ボーナスIP Store is of sufficient size to concurrently test multiple product categories. This testing is helping us to understand how to increase profitability through different combinations of FF and home cooking products, such as fresh food.
Reflecting test results into renewal of existing stores
We received a good response to many product categories through sales tests. Since opening bet365 ボーナスtore, bet365 ボーナスales of daily food, such as tofu and natto, have grown more than 10 times compared to before renewal.
The newly introduced baked bread, baked sweets, and other food prepared at the counter combined with drinks such as coffee, tea, and smoothies, resulted in counter FF sales of about 300,000 yen per day. These sales were much higher than our expectations. Also, as a result of tripling our lineup of frozen food, we increased their sales by about seven times compared to before renewal.
This data revealed to us future priorities for developing Seven-Eleven original merchandise.
For existing stores, we are planning to start tests within this fiscal year for three different layout patterns and product lineup that are based on bet365 ボーナスIP Store test results.
This July, we installed facilities on bet365 ボーナスecond floor of bet365 ボーナスIP Store where families can relax, including a 22-seat eat-in space, and a nursing room and kids’ room that were developed in collaboration with Akachan Honpo. This makes bet365 ボーナスtore even more convenient to use.
In the future, we will continue to reflect the results of bet365 ボーナスIP Store in your neighborhood Seven-Eleven.
Seven-Eleven in the palm of your hand: A delivery service with a lineup of 3,000 items
「7NOW」
Matching Now from three perspectives
In 2017, Seven-Eleven launched a delivery service in some areas in anticipation of future social trends, such as rising female participation in the workforce and an aging population.
We have successfully linked the delivery service to the real-time inventory of stores and developed the 7NOW app that is even easier bet365 ボーナスore convenient for customers to use. We have now started the full-fledged expansion of this delivery service.
By August 1, 2024, 7NOW was available at 14,500 stores in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Hokkaido, and 21 other prefectures across Japan. Customers can order while checking the inventory of about 3,000 items at bet365 ボーナスtore for themselves in real time. This eliminates any errors where the ordered product is not actually at bet365 ボーナスtore. As a result, the desired merchandise can be delivered in as little as 20 minutes from making the order.
We made this service worthy of bet365 ボーナスeven-Eleven brand by matching the concept of Now from three perspectives. The first is customer demand, when they think, “I want to eat that Now!” bet365 ボーナスecond Now is the current store inventory, and the third Now is the current status of delivery staff and vehicles available in the area. It was the building of a proprietary microservice platform that could match Now from these three perspectives that enabled us to create 7NOW.
The 7NOW app is essential for using this service. When developing this app, we focused in particular on the “shelf design” as a graphical representation of product shelves at a real store. This makes it easy for customers to select and order products because it gives them a similar experience to buying things at an actual store.
Stores receive the order via a smartphone terminal (app). Payments can be completed simply by picking up the product and scanning it, without needing to pass it through the cash register.
When product pickup is completed at a store, the delivery information is sent to multiple delivery companies simultaneously via our proprietary Delivery Hub matching network to arrange a vehicle. Staff from the delivery company that accepts the order goes to bet365 ボーナスtore to receive the merchandise and then delivers it to the customer (see the diagram on p. 7). Since developing this system, we achieved an average time of 19 minutes until delivery completion.
A system that benefits all three stakeholders of customers, stores, and delivery companies
We faced many obstacles during the development of the 7NOW service and we needed to make many breakthroughs. These included the construction of “real-time linkage to inventory” to allow customers to use their smartphones to check the current inventory of a store via a cloud database. This is the cornerstone of bet365 ボーナスervice, which reproduces “bet365 ボーナスeven-Eleven sales floor in the palm of the customer’s hand”
Another major issue was finding delivery staff and vehicles for the delivery service. In an on-demand service, every matching operation starts only after an order is received. This makes it difficult to predict in advance how many delivery staff and vehicles will be needed, and at which time and location.
To address this issue, we developed a system for 7NOW that links to multiple delivery companies and sends the order information to them simultaneously via a dedicated network. This means that rather than using dedicated staff and vehicles, we can select and send each order to a company that can deliver now in the corresponding area. This matching only takes a few seconds and is an important foundation of our quick service.
At bet365 ボーナスame time, we developed an order receiving system for bet365 ボーナスtore that minimizes the pickup work of staff. This system uses a photograph or other intuitive method to help staff recognize the ordered merchandise, making it easy for anyone to complete the process from pickup to payment.
bet365 ボーナスystem also enables freshness to be checked when the product is picked up; for example, by verifying the expiration date. Fried food such as fried chicken and croquettes are displayed at the top of the order screen to take account of cooking time. Staff can finish picking up other merchandise while the food is cooking.
Furthermore, due to demand from franchisees, we introduced a system where store staff can deliver products directly to customers instead of using delivery companies.
Customers are put at ease when their merchandise is delivered by familiar Seven-Eleven staff, and the franchisees can offer service at bet365 ボーナスame high level as their store even for deliveries. In addition to these advantages, there are business benefits as well, such as the profits generated by the delivery service.
A powerful customer contact point on par with real stores
The best sellers on 7NOW are products that meet the demand for what customers want to eat now. These include food straight from the fryer like fried chicken and croquettes, as well as comfort food such as ice cream. Daily household necessities, such as bottled water bet365 ボーナスilk, are also popular.
When customers buy these food products, they frequently purchase other household goods as well, leveraging the convenience of Seven-Eleven stores that stock about 3,000 items.
To date, we have promoted 7NOW mainly via the internet. Even so, we raised sales to a level where the average customer spend is 2,359 yen, with an average of 9.0 items per order. Furthermore, we can see from order data that we are receiving orders from a wider area than bet365 ボーナスales area of the real store.
As our service area expands from now on, we plan to redouble our promotion efforts to raise customer awareness and further grow our users.
In the future, in addition to our real stores, we will continue to develop 7NOW as a powerful Seven-Eleven contact point in the palm of the hands of our customers.