Engineering Autonomy: How Netguru Powered Żabka Nano’s Autonomous Stores
50+
Nano locations live
Autonomous stores running on the architecture, open around the clock.
12,000
Żabka stores in Poland
The chain the autonomous format sits within.
4M+
Transactions a day
Daily volume across Żabka Polska.
The client
Żabka is Poland's fastest-growing convenience store chain, with close to 12,000 stores and more than 4 million transactions a day.
Beyond the stores, it runs Żappka, a popular loyalty app, and keeps introducing new services and retail formats, including fully autonomous stores.
The challengeWhat needed to be solved
Żabka wanted customers to walk in, pick up what they need and leave, with payment taken automatically, at any time of day.
Challenge 01A format without precedent
Żabka was the first to open a chain of unmanned stores at this scale. There was no proven architecture to follow.
Challenge 02Coordinating every moving part
Authorization, payments, image recognition, doors and telemetry had to work as one system.
Challenge 03From pilot to chain
An MVP had to prove the concept with real shoppers. The same architecture then had to run many stores soon after.
What we did
The integration layer behind an unmanned store
We planned, designed, built and maintained the architecture connecting customer authorization, payments, third-party image recognition and store hardware into one system. A dedicated team with on-call developers watched over it continuously.
Documented architecture for every in-store process
Together with Żabka, we mapped every process inside an autonomous store. The architecture we designed met the requirements for stability, speed and future scale.
Infrastructure planned around the platform’s limits
The cloud infrastructure was analysed, planned and deployed on Azure, with detailed recommendations handed to the development team.
A concept validated with real customers
The first application synchronized the systems behind the store's crucial processes. Testing with real shoppers gave positive results and cleared the way for full development.
One system for many stores
Entry by payment card
Shoppers can also enter with a payment card. We built this entrance system for the new store configuration, integrating third-party providers.
Client testimonial
Cooperation with Netguru allowed us to efficiently deliver our vision: the team brought valuable competencies in system architecture, backend development and cloud solutions that supported our business goals.
Tech stackThe tools that made it possible
01
Python
Backend development for the services coordinating authorization, payments and store telemetry.
02
Microsoft Azure
The cloud infrastructure the autonomous store platform runs on.
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