Ochama, a new brand under JD.com, prides itself to “apply industrial automation to the retail market, resulting in a price benefit to the consumer”. As the purveyor quality everyday products Ochama has the one goal of making the purchase of these products as painless as possible without sacrificing on the need for quality control and accessibility. To create an integrated formula ranging from small to large format, the agencies created a concept that, in good Dutch fashion, celebrated the simplicity of everyday products. As Kang Li the managing partner of Storeage China puts it: “the Dutch have a saying: ‘doe maar gewoon dan doe je al gek genoeg’ (act normal, that is plenty crazy already). We wanted to use that to our advantage when creating a concept that positions Ochama’s as a price sensitive, quality obsessed, no thrills no frills, customer first brand.” 

Lieke Genten from Claessens Erdmann continues with: “to illustrate this principle we designed a simple red three-dimensional plus element as the connector, providing structure to the bamboo furniture but also introducing opportunities for motion graphics, connecting products to promotions, products to stories and ultimately products to people.” Sander Bos from Claessens adds: “To highlight Ochama’s point of difference, the visible integration of technology was paramount to the success of the formula. In the end Ochama wins in Europe with logistical excellence, delivering you products wherever, however and whenever you want. Automation allows for better pricing and faster delivery. Showcasing the robots that make this happen simply seemed very logical in these stores. At the core of the formula, we did not want to hide the technology, rather we wanted to make it a very entertaining part of the shopping experience.” 

To achieve this the agencies worked with Vanderlande for the equipment and programming to achieve a fully automated warehouse which included the introduction of actual robots in the store to fulfil order picking. Part attraction, part emphasising Ochama’s unparalleled logistics these robot arms are visible to the visitors of the store. Depending the consumer’s shopping habits, smaller items in the store will be pre-packed and delivered via a self-service check-out machine. Bulky items will be delivered straight to home. And a clever play on the branded swirl helps consumer to navigate the wide variety of products available and the all red self-service check out kiosks complement the ease of shopping at Ochama. 

With it’s simple yet refined material palette the store feels locally relevant, hints at the quality of the quintessential basic Dutch retailer, yet has enough differentiating details to make you realise this is in the end not just another international try-out, rather a new local formula that is here to stay, backed by the intelligence of a retail giant.