Omni Talk Retail’s Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga reconnect with Anika Vooes, Chief Acceleration Manager for REWE Digital, live from the VusionGroup booth at NRF Europe. In this follow-up conversation, Anika shares updates on REWE’s autonomous store evolution, introduces the concept of “lighthouse projects,” and reveals her philosophy for managing corporate innovation portfolios that balance breakthrough experiments with practical business solutions.
REWE Digital: European Retail Innovation at Scale
REWE stands as one of Germany’s largest retail groups, operating brands including Rewe supermarkets and Penny discount stores across over 15,000 locations in Europe, employing hundreds of thousands of people. Founded nearly 100 years ago as a cooperative with independent grocers, Reva has evolved into one of Europe’s biggest retail players while maintaining its innovation focus through Reva Digital.
Anika’s role as Chief Acceleration Manager centers on building bridges between startups and the corporate world, bringing cutting-edge startup solutions to real business problems and driving genuine impact for retail operations.
The Evolution of Autonomous Stores: From Entry to Exit
When Omni Talk first featured Anika, REWE was pioneering autonomous store technology in Europe. The project, which she describes as “the most challenging and most exciting project that I did in my career so far,” achieved remarkable success with rapid deployment and positive customer and press reception.
However, the most significant insight comes from REWE’s willingness to fundamentally redesign the customer experience based on behavioral observation. Initially, customers checked in at store entrance using an app, but REWE discovered this wasn’t natural behavior for shoppers who found the process cumbersome.
The breakthrough came when they moved the technology interaction to checkout: “Now at the end of the store you go to a till and you just press that you want to pay and all your items are listed and just you just check out and that really is so magical and it really boosted adoption.”
This change aligned with European customers’ habitualized shopping behavior—going through the store and paying at the end—resulting in dramatically improved adoption rates. The autonomous store technology now operates in six German locations plus one international store.
Lighthouse Projects: Illuminating Innovation Value
Anika introduces the concept of “lighthouse projects”—innovations that demonstrate clear business relevance and impact, shining light on the entire organization’s understanding of innovation value. These projects address the common perception that innovation teams are “crazy people doing things that are maybe not relevant for our daily business.”
Lighthouse projects work because “people can see it, they can feel it, they understand the relevance and it really works. It’s not just some crazy lab experiment that will never live through real life.” The autonomous store serves as REWE’s primary lighthouse project, proving that innovative technology can deliver practical business results at scale.
Innovation Portfolio Philosophy: Today’s vs. Tomorrow’s Money
Anika articulates a clear framework for justifying innovation investment: “You need people earning today’s money. And I work with the people who earn tomorrow’s money.” This distinction helps organizations understand that innovation investment is essential for long-term competitiveness, despite not delivering immediate returns.
Her approach to portfolio management is notably different from other innovation leaders. Rather than managing hundreds of simultaneous initiatives, Anika advocates for focus: “You can have not more than two big projects at the same time because when we do very innovative things, they take some time.”
This focused approach requires deep expertise development, with team members becoming field experts and building bridges from lab environments to everyday business operations. The goal isn’t stopping after proof-of-concept but achieving real scale implementation.
Balancing Innovation Speed with Business Integration
The portfolio strategy balances long-term breakthrough projects with “speedboat projects” and startup partnerships offering more mature, plug-and-play solutions for quick pilots. This multi-speed approach prevents innovation pipeline gaps while ensuring the team can deliver both revolutionary and incremental improvements.
Anika’s team brings diverse backgrounds, particularly startup experience combined with corporate understanding. This combination proves essential for the creative problem-solving required to overcome implementation challenges while maintaining positive, enthusiastic approaches to innovation obstacles.
The Innovation Learning Cycle: Test, Fail, Learn, Adapt
When discussing the autonomous store pivot from entry-scanning to exit-scanning, Anika reveals her philosophy: “I think it’s a constant test, fail, learn, and then adapt. And I think the adaption is the hardest part for many people working in innovation because many innovations stop at fail.”
The key differentiator is gut feeling combined with persistence: “You have to need to have that gut feeling thinking no it’s not done yet. Let’s try something else.” However, this persistence must be balanced with pragmatic decision-making about when to “kill your darlings” if projects can’t reach their potential.
Current Focus Areas: AI, Omnichannel, and Digital Twins
At NRF Europe, Anika is tracking early-stage developments in several key areas:
- AI Use Cases: Monitoring where attention and investment are concentrated in artificial intelligence applications
- Seamless Omnichannel Solutions: Identifying innovations that truly integrate customer experiences across channels
- Digital Twin Ideas: Exploring virtual representation technologies for retail operations
- Data Strategy: Advancing sophisticated approaches to customer and operational data utilization
Her focus on startups and investors reflects her commitment to identifying emerging trends before they become mainstream, positioning REWE to capitalize on tomorrow’s technological advantages.
Corporate-Startup Partnership Challenges
Looking ahead to 2025, Anika emphasizes improving corporate-startup collaboration: “Really being a good partner for startups because that’s a hard thing to do for corporates.” This challenge involves accelerating corporate innovation processes to match the “crazy new speed of innovation” that characterizes today’s technology landscape.
The goal is increasing both the number of startup partnerships and the quality of those relationships, recognizing that corporate bureaucracy often conflicts with startup agility and timeline requirements.
Key Strategic Insights
- Lighthouse Effect: Successful innovation projects must demonstrate clear business relevance that the entire organization can understand and feel
- Portfolio Focus: Managing fewer, deeper innovation projects often delivers better results than spreading resources across hundreds of initiatives
- Behavioral Adaptation: Technology implementation must adapt to customer habits rather than forcing customers to change behavior
- Dual-Speed Innovation: Balance breakthrough projects with quick-win startup partnerships for comprehensive innovation coverage
- Persistence with Pragmatism: Continue iterating on promising innovations while knowing when to abandon unsuccessful approaches
- Bridge-Building Expertise: Innovation success requires teams that understand both startup agility and corporate operational requirements
The Future of Retail Innovation
Anika’s approach demonstrates how established retailers can successfully navigate innovation challenges by focusing on practical impact rather than technological novelty. The autonomous store evolution—from complex entry processes to intuitive exit experiences—exemplifies how customer-centric iteration creates genuinely valuable innovations.
Her distinction between earning “today’s money” and “tomorrow’s money” provides a framework for organizations struggling to justify innovation investments. By creating lighthouse projects that demonstrate clear value, innovation teams can build organizational support for continued experimentation and growth.
As retail technology acceleration continues, Anika’s emphasis on corporate-startup partnership improvement becomes increasingly critical for established retailers seeking to maintain competitive advantage through innovation adoption.
🔑 Topics covered:
- Evolution of REWE’s autonomous store technology from entry-based to exit-based customer interaction
- Lighthouse project concept for demonstrating innovation value to corporate organizations
- Innovation portfolio management balancing breakthrough projects with quick-win partnerships
- Corporate-startup collaboration challenges and improvement strategies
- Customer behavior adaptation in technology implementation
- Focused vs. distributed approaches to managing innovation initiatives
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Omni Talk® is the retail blog for retailers, written by retailers. Chris Walton founded Omni Talk® in 2017 and have quickly turned it into one of the fastest growing blogs in retail.