GREISSLER.PLUS: Towards a Modern Distribution of

Regional Goods in Rural Areas in the Digital Era

Lukas Rohatsch

, Harald Wahl

and Josef Wagner

Faculty Computer Science, University of Applied Sciences Technikum Wien, Hoechstaedtplatz 6, Vienna, Austria

Keywords: Logistic Challenges, Supply of Daily Goods, ICT Platform, Rural Areas.

Abstract: The supply with daily consumer goods is a basic need for all people. Especially in rural areas, the supply

with groceries and goods of daily use has become increasingly difficult. The project GREISSLER.PLUS

tried to overcome this difficulty by designing individual operating models and providing an ICT platform.

Therefore, we carried out specific surveys as well as workshops to analyze the needs of the target groups in

the pilot region Schneebergland in Austria. After defining the requirements and developing five possible

operating models, we executed a pilot phase for testing purposes as well as for enhancing the functionalities.

At final stage of the project, we transferred the ICT platform as well as a specific business plan to a new

owner who will ensure an economically sustainable operation.

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6168-2717

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5215-1148

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3750-7046

1 INTRODUCTION

In rural and peripheral areas, it is progressively

becoming more difficult to secure the supply of

goods for daily use, because the trend is heading

towards larger grocery stores which are mostly

located in areas of larger communities. Such

branches regularly provide a wider range of goods.

They have a higher budget for advertising and they

can offer similar products with lower prices

compared to small local suppliers. As a

consequence, small local suppliers are being pushed

out of the market by branches of large supermarket

chains, which are more frequented. This

development leads to a shrinking range of supply

facilities within walking distance and to rising

challenges for elder and less mobile people in

handling an independent style of living (Rohatsch,

2018).

The former research project “Active Ageing” has

been carried out to analyze the structural change

alongside decline and ageing of the population. One

of the findings of this project were local difficulties

concerning the accessibility of supermarkets in the

region Schneebergland (Derkits et al, 2014).

The cooperative research and development

project GREISSLER.PLUS has been initiated to

develop modern IT-supported solutions to meet the

challenge of accessing regional products considering

current demographic and regional conditions (Wahl

et al, 2018).

This paper briefly introduces related works as

well as our used methods and goals in the project

GREISSLER.PLUS, it gives an overview of selected

results and potential operation models. Moreover

this paper gives insight in the conducted testing

phase and in the structure of the ICT-platform.

2 RELATED WORKS

A similar approach has been made with the

development of an online platform for local supply

which is operated in Mattighofen in Upper Austria,

(Land Oberösterreich). According to

zukunftsraumland.at, Mattighofen has a

differentiated, naturally grown and quality-oriented

business structure (KAUFMANNSCHAFT

MATTIGHOFEN, 2014). Above all it is advertised

with the fact that the broad branch mix, as well as

Rohatsch, L., Wahl, H. and Wagner, J.

GREISSLER.PLUS: Towards a Modern Distr ibution of Regional Goods in Rural Areas in the Digital Era.

DOI: 10.5220/0007756401650171

In Proceedings of the 8th Inter national Conference on Smart Cities and Green ICT Systems (SMARTGREENS 2019), pages 165-171

ISBN: 978-989-758-373-5

165

the quality in consultation and service differs from

so-called “mass shopping” and thus serves as a role

model for an exemplary local supplier structure. In

the project “Mattighofen Nahversorger Web 2.0”,

the aim was to secure the future of this location of

local supply. Tangible actions were the involvement

of local suppliers and target groups in the

development and implementation of the website for

the promotion of business and tourism, as well as

training programmes for employees of these

companies. In addition, the population was actively

involved in the design of events and documentation.

An additional action was to offer daily updated

menus at twelve restaurants. These actions led to an

increase in the population’s identification with their

home town. Both businesses and restaurants as well

as leisure facilities have gained in popularity as a

result (Land Oberösterreich)

(KAUFMANNSCHAFT MATTIGHOFEN, 2014).

3 METHODOLOGY

After a basic research and the determination of

relevant suppliers and companies in the pilot region

called “Schneebergland”, we carried out a survey

and conducted four workshops to collect and

understand the needs of suppliers and customers.

The survey has been distributed via different

channels of the project partners to reach residents of

the region Schneebergland. It has been sent out

paper-based as well as an online questionnaire and

consisted of 33 questions about the resident’s

shopping behaviour. The exploratory character of

the basic research and the survey aimed to identify

possible operating models.

The first workshop focused on discovering the

needs of local producers of the region. Several

producers and local suppliers followed the invitation

to deal with the maintenance of regional products

along the current trend concerning large supermarket

chains and possible new ways to reach customers.

The second workshop was carried out with residents

and consumers to determine their needs in terms of

grocery shopping (Wahl et al, 2018).

The third workshop was held after the evaluation

and interpretation of the survey to present and

discuss five different operating models with the

attending producers and local suppliers as well as to

select one of them to be tested. The fourth workshop

was used to present the evaluation of the survey to

the residents as well as to inform about the testing

operation.

4 RESULTS

The survey only reached a limited number of

residents of the pilot region and the results only fit to

those who were interested in the development of

their region. The results are not representative for

the entire region Schneebergland.

The workshops showed that local producers

stand for local production and high Austrian quality.

They are used to link their person and face to their

regional products to create trust and loyalty to their

customers. They stated that their customers want to

know the ingredients of their products in detail and

represent the opinion that this information can only

be provided honestly and reliably by regional

products.

Similar to the producers and local suppliers, the

consumers in the second workshop also became

aware of the importance of regional products and

Austrian quality while the availability and

accessibility of these products was perceived as too

low. They stated, that they have to visit several

producers and shops at varying business hours to

purchase regional products. We found out, that only

a few people are willing to consider this effort and

respective long travel times. This led to discussions

in which we found out that consumers want to get all

desired products in one place. The attending

residents also whished for a common approach and

better information about local producers in the

region and where to reach their products (Wahl et al,

2018).

4.1 Survey

227 responses could be obtained through distributing

the survey and reaching people coming from 15 out

of 18 villages and municipalities which are part of

the region Schneebergland. In the survey we

considered to ask for the demographic information

like their ages and the number of people who live in

their households. The average age was 38.12 years

while 50 percent of the respondents were between

34 and 42 years old. The average number of people

per household was 4.11.

Figure 1 illustrates the share of used transport

modes of the respondents for buying groceries. For

this question, the surveyed were able to respond with

multiple answers. However, 200 out of 227 people

mentioned the car (among others) as one of their

mainly used means of transport.

As shown in Figure 2, 217 people indicated to

mainly visit big supermarket chains to buy groceries.

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For this question it was also possible to respond with

multiple answers.

Figure 3 illustrates the responses to the question

on how many stores are visited by the surveyed per

week in the course of shopping groceries. The figure

clearly shows that nearly three quarters visit 2 to 3

stores per week. Only 35 of 227 stated to visit only

one store.

Figure 1: Which means of transport do you use mainly for

buying groceries? (multiple answer possible).

Figure 2: Visited stores (multiple answer possible).

Figure 3: Number of grocery stores to visit per week.

The survey also revealed that more than 75

percent of the respondents would consider to buy

groceries via online services. The majority of 40

percent would buy all groceries online and 35

percent stated that they would buy only certain

products online. The mentioned products included

products like cereals, bread, noodles, honey, milk

and flour as well as vegetables, fruit, eggs and meat

(Wahl et al, 2018).

4.2 Model Design

The evaluation of the survey as well as the findings

in the first and second workshop were used to

develop five different operating models to become

candidates to be implemented in our testing phase.

These models have the usage of an online

platform in common but differ in their particular

process steps in distributing the ordered products.

4.2.1 Model 1: Delivery Service Home

In Model 1, customers can place their orders online

at a central office which bundles and forwards them

to the respective producers. This ensures that

producers receive those orders which are relevant to

them. Each producer provides a separate package of

ordered goods per customer. In the next step all

packages are collected by the central station to be

merged for each customer and put into bags. Finally

each bag will be delivered to the respective

customer. The process of Model 1 is illustrated in

Figure 4 and Figure 5.

Figure 4: Model 1: Ordering process.

Figure 5: Model 1: Delivery process.

GREISSLER.PLUS: Towards a Modern Distribution of Regional Goods in Rural Areas in the Digital Era

167

4.2.2 Model 2: Company as Pick-up

Location

Model 2 is characterized by the possiblity to choose a

Pick-Up Station in the process of ordering online (cf.

Figure 6). The ordered goods will be delivered to the

choosen companies which act as Pick-Up Stations by

the producers and can be picked up by the customers

during the opening hours of the company. The

delivery process of Model 2 is shown in Figure 7.

Figure 6: Model 2: Ordering process.

Figure 7: Model 2: Delivery process.

4.2.3 Model 3: Pure Platform Model

For Model 3 we developed two variants. In both of

them, every process step is handled by the online

platform automatically (cf. Figure 8).

Figure 8: Model 3: Ordering process.

The delivery process in variant 1 is organized and

carried out by the producers (cf. Figure 9) and in

variant 2 a delivery service is organized for

distribution of the ordered products which is

illustrated in Figure 10.

Figure 9: Model 3: Delivery process variant 1.

Figure 10: Model 3: Delivery process variant 2.

4.2.4 Model 4: Food Coops

Model 4 was designed to use so-called “food-coop

stations” to which the ordered products are

delivered. After the delivery the customers are

informed via E-Mail about it. These stations are

locked and only registered customers have access to

them for picking up their ordered products. On the

one hand this model strongly relies on trusting other

customers to only take their specific packages and

Figure 11: Model 4: Ordering process.

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Figure 12: Model 4: Delivery process.

products. On the other hand these stations are

independent of any opening hours. The process of

ordering in Model 4 can be viewed in Figure 11 and

the process of delivery is illustrated in Figure 12.

4.2.5 Model 5: Rolling Greissler

The Rolling-Greissler model describes a travelling

supplier which uses fixed locations to be visited in

certain timeframes. During this periods, customers

can get their ordered products as well as shop

without ordering. In this model the travelling

supplier handles the incoming orders and takes them

on his journey through the region to provide the

products for the customers in the predefined

timeframes at the respective locations. The operating

model for the Rolling Greissler is shown in Figure

13 (Rohatsch, 2018).

Figure 13: Model 5: Complete Process.

4.3 Operating Model

After evaluating the survey and based on the first

two workshops with our target groups the potential

operating models and business concepts have been

discussed in the third workshop by the attending

producers and the project members. Considering the

wish of the customers to have the option to collect

their orders at one specific location, the producers

focused on discussing on Model 2 and how to adapt

it. Refinements included the constraint of having

Friday and Saturday as Pick-Up-Days for the

customers each week and that orders had to be

placed until Wednesday midnight of the same week.

Thursdays were considered to process the orders and

to prepare the products (Rohatsch, 2018).

4.4 ICT Platform

Based on the requirements for an online platform

and during the development of the five different

models, we put effort in researching suitable

software with extendable components.

The content management system Joomla! turned

out to be the most suitable candidate to develop a

Web-based prototype for our purposes. As a result,

potential eShop enhancements for Joomla! were

identified and tested for functionality and ease of

use. The extensions Sellacious, Easy Shop,

VirtueMart and J2Store were considered particularly

intensively. Subsequently, the decision was made to

use the J2Store extension. The essential factors were

the user-friendliness, the clear structure in the

backend and a comparatively large range of

additional, compatible plug-ins. To develop the

platform, a test version was set up on a server of the

UAS Technikum Wien and filled with test products

of different categories and producers. In order to

simulate realistic orders, artificial customers were

created as well. This test version has also been used

to test new plugins and software-extensions before

installing them in the live system which has been

created for the testing phase. Furthermore we

developed special extensions for producers and

operators of Pick-Up Stations. These extensions are

designed to provide access to the orders and

inventory settings for the respective producers and

operators of Pick-Up Stations (Rohatsch, 2018).

During the research project the main menu of the

platform’s frontend contained the following entries:

 Home

 Product Categories

 Producers

 Pick-Up Stations

 For Consumers

 Contact

The entry “Product Categories” led to an

overview of all products which could be filtered by

price and by category (bread & pastries, meat,

venison, spices, honey and jam products, etc.).

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A click on the entry “Producers” revealed a

submenu with a link to a list of all producers with

public access as well links to the producer specific

order overview and the respective producer’s

inventory settings with restricted access.

The entry “Pick-Up Stations” also contained a

submenu with a link to a list of all Pick-Up Stations

as well as a specific order overview for their

operators with restricted access.

A click on the entry “For Consumers” displayed

a submenu as well containing entries like “Login”,

“Sign Up” and “Terms of Use” with public access

and entries like “My Profile” and “User Settings”

with restricted access while the entry “Contact” led

to a contact form, the imprint and the privacy policy.

4.5 Testing Phase

The preparations for the testing phase included the

acquisition of producers and operators of potential

Pick-Up Stations, as well as the creation of product

photos and short videos about the companies

involved. Our range of producers and regional food

suppliers in the testing phase contained for example

a bakery, a butcher, a beekeeper for honey products,

several organic farms, a hunter providing venison as

well as a jam producer and one garlic farmer. In total

we managed to convince 19 regional producers and

grocery suppliers to take part in our research project.

The operators of a small grocery store, two cafés and

a bookstore decided to contribute by serving as Pick-

Up Stations.

During the testing phase, only those products

were released online for ordering which were

available in the standard product ranges of the

respective companies from March to December

2018. Orders could be placed until Wednesday to be

ready for pick-up on the following Friday or

Saturday. To successfully submit an order a

customer had to pay online via PayPal or EPS direct

transfer. Via our specific interface of the Web shop,

producers and operators of Pick-Up Stations had

access to those orders which were relevant for them.

In addition, they received weekly summarized

information about the orders which had been placed

until Wednesday via e-mail every Thursday at 3 am

in the morning. This way we secured that no order

was missed, the producers were able to process the

orders and had time to prepare the ordered products

until Friday or Saturday depending what the

customer stated in the ordering process. During our

testing phase producers delivered the ordered

products to the respective Pick-Up Station until 10

am of the day the customer wanted to pick them up

(Rohatsch et al, 2018).

Throughout the testing phase, the project team

constantly received suggestions for improving the

platform, which were gradually incorporated.

The testing phase was started on March 1

and

lasted several months. Final improvments based on

the findings of the testing phase were implemented

to ensure stakeholder satisfaction.

5 DISCUSSION

The operator of an organic farm has agreed that his

products can be sold via the platform during the

testing phase. The managing director of a local

supplier, which was suitable as a potential pick-up

station, also sells meat and sausage products from

the operator of the organic farm in her shop. For

economic reasons, these goods are resold by the

company at a higher price. This would have meant

that the same products would have existed in one

place at different prices. It would therefore be

cheaper to purchase the goods via the platform and

the local supplier would have suffered losses in

sales. This conflict prevented the cooperation with

this supplier during the testing phase.

Some of the potential consumers did not want to

make online payments and would have preferred to

pay for the products when they were picked up at the

pick-up station. However, this entailed the risk that

orders would neither be collected nor paid. This

would have led to economic losses for producers,

especially in the case of perishable groceries and

fresh goods such as bread and pastries. For this

reason, the project team was unable to find a way to

avoid online payments in advance during the testing

phase.

6 OUTLOOK

The aim of the project was to sustainably implement

the ICT platform in the pilot region Schneebergland.

This goal was achieved by handing over the

platform to a future operator in January 2019, who

will continue to operate it. The new owner’s plan is

to adapt the operating model and to add the

possibility of delivering the orders to the customers

homes by using services of the Austrian Post.

To transfer the platform and the operating model

into other regions, comprehensive basic analysis will

be necessary. Moreover, the need of such a platform

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in the respective region has to be evaluated. Further

steps would be the selection of certain range of

products, the creation of product pictures and short

video clips as well as the representation on the

platform.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The project was funded by the Austrian Research

Promotion Agency (FFG) via the Austrian

programme “benefit”.

REFERENCES

Derkits I., Sanz M., 2014. Mehr Lebensqualität im Alter:

Impulse für das Schneebergland. Industrieviertel,

accessed 21 January 2019,

< http://www.industrieviertel.at/wp-content/uploads/

2015/07/EB-aa-141107_Handlungsoptionen_de.pdf>

KAUFMANNSCHAFT MATTIGHOFEN, 2014.

Mattighofen Nahversorger Web 2.0, accessed 8 March

2019, <

https://www.zukunftsraumland.at/pdf.php?inc=project

&id=798>

Land Oberösterreich. Mattighofen Nahversorgung Web

2.0. Land Oberösterreich, accessed 8 March 2019, <

https://www.land-oberoesterreich.gv.at/104457.htm>

Rohatsch, L., 2018. Master-Thesis: GREISSLER.PLUS –

Nahversorgung mit Waren des täglichen Bedarfs in

der Kleinregion Schneebergland. UAS Technikum

Wien. Vienna, Austria, May 4, 2018

Wahl, H., Rohatsch, L., Ringer, N., 2018. Addressing the

Challenges of Supplying People with Daily Consumer

Goods in Rural Areas. Proceedings of 7th Transport

Research Arena TRA 2018, Vienna, Austria, April 16-

19, 2018

Rohatsch, L., Wahl, H., Wagner, J., 2018. Towards an ICT

Platform for Local Supply in Rural Areas. 9th Week

of Innovative Regions in Europe, Innsbruck, Tyrol,

Austria, July 4-6, 2018

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