The concept focuses on gamification on smartphones as the key connector between Lidl POS and its Clients. The app should entertain and delight children with grocery shopping and create a connection to it. The basis is a strategy game with the task to grow a small market stand into a large and successful supermarket. The concept connects the real world with the virtual game world by integrating a product scanner for Lidl original products. If scanned in a Lidl supermarket the player receives extra credits for his game and is able to progress faster in his gameplay. We restrained the scanning of products to Lidl own brands instead of popular brands to make sure that users need to visit a Lidl to redeem credits. The results are extremely positive. Since its launch the gamers did 3,9 million product scans - resulting in hundreds of thousands of instore visits.

From the beginning, the concept was to enable the international rollout. As a special gimmick and besides the implementation of the game frontend, an online translation tool for the app managers of the Lidl-countries was integrated into the backend. This way, the app managers of the respective countries can adapt the texts in their specific language and edit products for each country individually. These are directly transferred from the backend to the app by means of a live update.

The app "My Lidl World" was launched in Portugal in 2017. In the course of the year, the app was also released in other countries, such as Spain, Italy and Austria. The app´s launch was a complete success: Since the first release, “My Lidl World“ has registered over 1.6 million downloads and more than 11 million sessions. In Portugal, the app occupied the top position of all kids’ apps and games in the App Store for weeks, and gained the top position of the kids’ apps and games in Bulgaria, Spain and Slovakia. In 11 of the 18 countries, the app for Android remained in the Top 10 of the category “Strategy" (Games) for at least 10 consecutive days, and in 11 of the 18 countries, it occupied the top position of all kids’ apps in the iTunes App Store for at least 10 days.