Coop Israel – a Leader in IT Retail Solutions

The beauty of Euro Coop is that each national member association caries its own distinct characteristics, which are usually the key elements of its success. With Coop Israel, that distinct characteristic is its IT culture.

In 2015, Coop Israel established a new subsidiary – Coop Technologies with one sole mission: to develop a unique ERP system for the needs of its Coop retail chain so as to prepare it for future trends in the field, including digitalization and e-commerce. With hard work, the final product materialized: “Retailing” - a cloud-based ERP platform for mid and small sized retail co-operatives. It was developed in partnership with the global leader in this field – SAP. The notion behind this product is based on delivering a flexible system of retailing as a service (SaaS), where the client uses what they need when they need it and pays for it accordingly. 

The system consolidates all retail operations and processes, from the finance and trade divisions to the warehouse manager of the store. Since it is based on the cloud, the system minimizes the client’s need of in-house resources – the product may be used and accessed remotely by any retailer, regardless of size and technical savviness. Resources (processing and storage of data) are available and manageable in a click. “Retailing” is a decision-making system, which means it can perform an analysis of the client’s records to identify strengths and weaknesses and provide recommendations for optimizing processes. The user-friendly and simple software interface means practically no special training is required. 

One of the platform’s main features is an integrated system that significantly simplifies the management of the store planogram and inventory, which optimizes store costs and shortens the supply chain response time. The feature was solely developed by Coop Technologies and is seen as superior to any SAP equivalent, which is why it is patented by Coop Israel. “Retailing” allows the parallel monitoring by the store manager and the HQ manager (in the context of a retail chain) and enables them to reach the right decisions in real time which benefit the store, the chain, and the customer. The system supports an advanced multiplatform interface which provides different modules depending on the user – CEO, store manager, warehouse manager, etc. All processes are followed in real time and cross referenced, which minimized risks and errors. It is what makes “Retailing” a unique product not only in Israel, but on the global market, too.

Coop Technologies’ breakthrough has facilitated Coop Israel’s position on the national market, not only as a leader in retail and e-commerce, but a powerhouse developer of retail IT solutions. This has further enabled Coop Israel to pursue joint ventures with leading companies on national and international level in the area of import and export of goods and services.

Coop’s main mission has always been to serve their members and customers, and they see their added value in providing the best possible shopping experience in Israel. Throughout the years, this has propelled Coop to success by developing their retail chain’s nationwide coverage and by exploring new growth engines all the while promoting the co-operative values and principles.