With CGI’s help, Carrefour completed 1.5 million online orders for pickup in a single month through their “Drive” service

For nearly two months, French consumers have been confined, and retailers have become their sole means of obtaining supplies during this time. Faced with an unprecedented challenge, Carrefour—a leading global retailer—had to respond quickly by securing their supply chains, ensuring service continuity and reassuring consumers.

For over 10 years, CGI has supported Carrefour in its e-commerce operations through CGI Retail Suite, a solution designed to support retailers across their entire value chains, from back office to front office.

This solution has allowed Carrefour to manage online orders in France through their Drive service from start to finish, from customer approval to order preparation and pick up. Nearly 1,500 Drive pickup points rely on the CGI Retail Suite today.

Managing a rapid increase in online orders

Due to the lockdown, the number of Drive orders skyrocketed. Before the COVID-19 crisis, 46,000 orders were recorded per day. When the French President announced the lockdown on March 17, 2020, over 90,000 orders were placed in a single day. Such a spike in activity needed additional support.

CGI quickly developed a dedicated task force to support Carrefour at this unique and critical time. A team of 20 experts was mobilized to implement an action plan allowing Carrefour to keep up momentum with this upsurge and meet the significant demand of its customers.

In March 2020, the number of Drive orders reached more than 1.5 million compared to nearly 900,000 monthly orders on average, and the service added 4 million new customers.