Engineering Autonomy: How Netguru Powered Żabka Nano’s Autonomous Stores

Żabka came together with Netguru as a technology partner to plan, design, implement, and maintain the architecture of their autonomous stores. The client received a top-notch, innovative system ready to handle significant traffic.

Building autonomous stores with Żabka – case study

Żabka, the fastest-growing chain of convenience stores in Poland, launched autonomous stores and Netguru jumped in with tech support.

Client

With nearly 12,000 stores across all major cities and towns, and over 4 mln transactions daily Żabka Polska is one of the largest retail chains in Poland.

Żabka continuously implements new services, offers a highly popular loyalty app, Żappka, and drives cutting-edge digital solutions for retail, reshaping the industry.

Autonomous stores are yet another example of the company’s bold vision.

Autonomous stores

Żabka’s autonomous stores, Nano, are open 24/7. There are no baskets, no cashiers, no counters so customers enter, pick up what they need, and leave, at any time of the day.

The payment for the goods they pick is deducted automatically from their payment cards as they leave the store.

A shopper enters the outlet using the Żappka app or a credit card.

Advanced scanning systems and AI-powered computer vision technology guarantee a customer will pay exactly for what they buy, and can leave the shop quickly, without physical check out.

Building autonomous stores with Żabka – case study

Project

Żabka came together with Netguru as a technology partner to plan, design, implement, and maintain its autonomous stores architecture that would operate the systems responsible for customer authorization, payments, and image recognition (delivered by another provider), and store hardware such as automatic doors and telemetry.

In other words, Netguru acted as a key technology partner, building the integration layer that allowed various systems to work together as one ecosystem.

Working closely with Żabka, we integrated data from Żabka, its providers and partners, ensuring a smooth technical foundation for the seamless customer experience designed by the client.

The scope of our work
  • Creating the system architecture
  • Designing and implementing the cloud infrastructure using Microsoft Azure
  • Backend development using Python
  • Integrations

Challenges

  • Building a pioneering project – the entire format was novel and Żabka was the first to introduce a chain of unmanned stores of such scale and magnitude.
  • Handling the technological complexity – to ensure customers are checked out automatically, we had to design and implement a system architecture that coordinated every operational aspect of the autonomous stores.
  • Integrating a complex dependencies environment – the complex system had to flawlessly capture and handle events from multiple devices.
  • Ensuring scalability of an already robust project – the product’s architecture and software had to be built in a way that would allow it to scale quickly.

Approach

A project of this size and magnitude required a careful and systematic approach both from a technology and talent perspective.

Autonomous stores ecosystem

Building a dedicated project team

To handle all the project’s challenges, Netguru built a flexible, self-organized team with all the required competencies and a product-oriented mindset. Oncall developers were watching over the entire system on an ongoing basis. Depending on the phase of the project, the following people were involved:

ROLE

RESPONSIBILITIES

Solution Architect

Analyzing customer needs, creating and maintaining technical vision of the product and development practices, creating technical solutions, and gathering and processing high-level technical requirements.

Product Owner

Prioritizing product backlog and ensuring flawless communication between Żabka’s product owners and the Netguru development team.

Tech Lead

Maintaining technical expertise and leading the development phase.

Engineering Lead



Overseeing the delivery process, maintaining the quality of software delivery, creating an engineering strategy for the customer, and ensuring adherence to the best practices in software development.

Backend Developers and DevOps Engineers

Building the product, in accordance with the architectural and functional needs of the project.

Project Manager

Managing all project aspects, including the team and customer communication and deliverables.

PM Lead

Overseeing management, organizing the team, and creating new solutions for maintenance.

QA Engineers

Testing and quality assurance at all stages of development.

The dedicated team to build Żabka's autonomous stores

Stage 1: Designing the system architecture

In the first phase, together with Zabka, we prepared detailed tech documentation outlining all the processes within an autonomous store as well as product architecture able to handle those processes, ready to be developed and implemented.

We took into account individual product requirements (stability of the system, high performance, and speed) and limitations. We also responded to the client's business goals around outstanding customer experience and future scalability.

Stage 2: Planning & developing the infrastructure

In the next step, the entire cloud-based infrastructure was planned, designed, and implemented using Microsoft Azure solutions. We carried out an in-depth analysis of the Azure environment to plan an implementation process that would leverage the features and overcome the limitations of the platform.

Subsequently, we prepared and deployed the architecture to the cloud and compiled a set of detailed recommendations for the development team for further work.

Stage 3: Creating an MVP

The implementation phase began with creating an MVP of an application that synchronized the systems responsible for coordinating all the crucial processes in stores enabling Żabka to validate the concept with real customers.

The testing yielded positive results, and we were able to move on to the final step of the process.

Step 4: Development of the system

This final stage involved developing and implementing the system that is able to handle processes in numerous stores.

Technology: Entrance systems

Alongside developing the technology for the autonomous stores, we also worked on building the entrance system for the new autonomous shop configuration. It was designed to allow customers to enter the stores using a payment card and required third-party integrations.

Building autonomous stores with Żabka – case study

Results

  • Żabka Nano’s clients can enjoy a 24/7 shopping experience in fully autonomous stores, in over 50 locations.
  • The client received a top-notch, innovative system ready to handle significant traffic.
  • The system provided is stable, efficient, and easy to maintain.
  • Żabka Nano secured its leading position in the market and is a pioneer in digital acceleration in retail.


  • Żabka Nano is a strategic project through which we strengthen our position as an innovator in retail. Cooperation with Netguru allowed us to efficiently deliver our vision—the team brought valuable competencies in system architecture, backend development and cloud solutions that supported our business goals.
    Paweł Grabowski  Head of unmanned solutions at Żabka (Żabka Future)

    Paweł Grabowski

    Head of Digital B2B at Żabka Future in Żabka Group

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