Behind the scenes

Digitec Galaxus Hackfest: 54 hours of work presented in 3 minutes

1/7/2024

Translation: Eva Francis

What would improve our shops for customers? How could we make internal processes faster and more efficient? Over 200 participants at this year’s Digitec Galaxus hackathon offered answers to these and more questions.

Digitec founder and Chief Innovation Officer Oliver Herren felt «as if in a cool e-commerce simulator». He was impressed by the sheer amount of ideas that were implemented at this year’s Hackfest. More than 200 participants had come together in 26 teams. In only 54 hours, they turn their ideas into working prototypes.

Analysing the data sets the foundation for all teams.
Source: Christian Heldstab

Coding and discussions – two important activities at Hackfest.
Source: Christian Heldstab

«That’s precisely the idea behind a hackathon – to give employees even more creative freedom to work on concrete improvements,» says Tobias Quelle, Head of Product, about Digitec Galaxus’s own hackathon. The hacks often turn into initiatives that become visible to online shop customers.

Hackfest – A creative meat grinder where raw ideas are turned into innovative outcomes. A fast-paced event where participants race against the clock, resulting in meaty marvels.

Definition of the Digitec Galaxus Hackfest

Tobias Quelle, Head of Product, kicking off the 2024 edition of Hackfest.
Source: Christian Heldstab

Audience Prize for Galaxus Snap

What do you do when you’re in a store, standing in front of a product you like but would rather buy on Galaxus or Digitec? How come? Well, a 65-inch TV just might not fit in your rucksack and you’d rather have it delivered to your home. With the idea of Galaxus Snap, all you have to do is scan the barcode with the Digitec Galaxus app and you can see the product in the Digitec or Galaxus shop. It even works without a barcode. Let’s say you like your colleague’s sneakers. Then all you need to do is take a picture of them to find out the model name and how much they cost on Galaxus. And then you’re just one click away from buying them.

The team who worked on this idea even produced its own short commercial:

They presented the implementation live on stage in a three-minute pitch – and won over the audience as well as employees from all areas. Galaxus Snap got the most online votes, winning the Audience Prize 2024.

Voting for the Audience Prize.
Source: Christian Walker

Digitec founder and CEO Florian Teuteberg immediately gave the green light to implement this idea. «That’s something I’ve wanted for a long time. Please start implementing it tomorrow,» he said.

Founders’ prize for Galaxus Stories

There’s another idea that stands a good chance of being implemented. It won the Founders’ Prize, awarded solely by Florian Teuteberg and Oliver Herren as founders of Digitec – according to their personal criteria and opinion. Galaxus Stories won them over. This idea includes showing users a summary of interesting content from Digitec and Galaxus – personalised and in the style of social media platforms. However, directly on the shop interface instead of on an external platform.

In the Galaxus Stories, you’d find out, for example, whether products from your favourite brands are on special offer, if the editorial team’s published a new review on a topic that interests you or what cool products have recently been added to our shops. The team’s pitch included a preview of what Galaxus Stories could look like.

Especially Oliver Herren, who’s not a fan of social media (to say the least), liked the idea of integrating this directly into the Digitec and Galaxus shops and app. Here’s his opinion piece on social media:

Christian Sager, Senior Product Owner, expressed the joy of winning the Founders’ Prize on behalf of the team:

Winning the Founders’ Prize – wow, we didn’t expect that! Honestly, our minds were set on the after-work celebrations. That makes it all the more special that our idea and implementation resonated with Flo and Oli.

The winners of the Founders' Prize celebrating their prize – the Access 2000 manual from the Digitec founders. It’s kind of a challenge cup.
Source: Christian Walker

Not only the two winning ideas were great, but all of the presentations addressing a wide range of topics found an audience. One team, for instance, presented a process to support handing over used products from our second-hand area in person from the seller to the buyer. Other teams developed solutions that could be used to detect attempted fraud faster – or how storing hundreds of thousands of products per week could be simplified in logistics.

Many of the ideas dealt with how to help customers find the right product. This topic was frequently mentioned when we asked all Community members to send us their wishes and ideas.

Group photo of all participants wearing the Hackfest T-shirt.
Source: Manuel Wenk

Which hackathon idea is your favourite? Want to share any thoughts or questions? Let us know in the comments. Or maybe you’d like to join our team? If so, check out all our current vacancies.

Header image: Christian Heldstab / Digitec Galaxus

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Martin Jungfer

Head of Content

Martin.Jungfer@digitecgalaxus.ch

Journalist since 1997. Stopovers in Franconia (or the Franken region), Lake Constance, Obwalden, Nidwalden and Zurich. Father since 2014. Expert in editorial organisation and motivation. Focus on sustainability, home office tools, beautiful things for the home, creative toys and sports equipment.

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