C&A: rethinking retail and driving digitalization 9 Most checkout methods on the market are complete in themselves, but often lack connection with the store, the warehouse, or where those are located. There’s a methodology, called heuristics, that takes into account a set of parameters that are important for a given interface. Using it to develop the SmartCheckout, some of those parameters are the moment of purchase, the products in the customer’s cart, the geographical position of the customer, and the inventory. By combining all these parameters, the SmartCheckout is capable of identifying the closest store that has the inventory to fulfill each order. The superpower of the omnichannel is that it enables the shopper to have a seamless experience regardless of the channel. For the retailer, it simplifies inventory management, along with other key benefits, like driving sales due to the increase in the product offering accuracy. In short, you primarily offer products you can deliver since the system is making you aware of the inventory by showing live information about the remaining stock nearest to the customer’s location. Having full digital visibility of what is in each C&A’s brick-and-mortar store was a game- changer utility for the company. Additionally, on the technology side, omnichannel is very easy to set up, almost ‘plug and play’ – the challenge is not about setting it up anymore. It’s about setting up the processes and operations to make the omnichannel happen.