Salling Group is northern Europe’s largest retail group, serving 15 million customers each week in its more than 2,100 stores across Denmark, Germany, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
The company’s history goes back more than 100 years, and what began as a small textile shop in Aarhus, Denmark, is now an international retailer with €12 billion in revenue.
SAP has supported Salling Group for over 20 years and is central to its operations, said Alan Jensen, CIO and executive vice president at Salling Group. Recently, the company has modernized its ERP system to SAP S/4HANA Cloud via RISE with SAP.
With this cloud-based infrastructure in place, the retailer is ready to begin its AI transformation.
Improving everyday life
Salling Group’s reason for introducing AI is threefold: improve customer experience, simplify for employees, and boost operational efficiency. “We want to make everyday life better for our customers by having the right product for the right price every time they need it,” Jensen said. “We also want to make every day better for our employees, so the tools and systems they work with are intuitive and easy to use.” This aligns with the company’s purpose to improve everyday life for customers, colleagues, and the communities it is a part of.
The company views AI as a key enabler, focusing on how to turn AI into real business value for customers, employees, and the company overall. One such area where AI will have real impact on the retailer is logistics, Jensen said. Currently, Salling Group uses SAP Extended Warehouse Management in its 29 distribution centers. The application helps manage high volumes of goods and run sustainable, risk-resilient operations via digitalized warehouse processes in the cloud. For Salling Group, this means on-time delivery to stores and efficient supply chain operations.
What’s next
Salling Group is using SAP solutions and AI to modernize its retail operations end-to-end, with a clear emphasis on customer experience, employee productivity, and supply chain excellence—while ensuring new technologies deliver tangible business outcomes.
When it comes to SAP, Jensen is looking forward to seeing how the Autonomous Enterprise will further Salling Group’s success with AI.
“The Autonomous Enterprise looks very exciting,” Jensen said. “There is definitely a lot in how we can improve the way we run our business every day, so we need to be curious and see how we can use it.”
