Challenges for omnichannel applications at ALDI: Data distribution and offline capabilities

Traditional brick-and-mortar stores are evolving to address the changing needs and wishes of customers. Click & Collect, mobile self-checkout, and checkout-free stores are just some examples that require the synchronization of data not only across points-of-sales in a store but a variety of services & devices both within the organization and in the hands of partners and customers.

Using price updates as an example, we discuss the deceptively difficult challenge of reliable distribution of updates in a microservice and device-centric environment. This includes the transactional outbox pattern and some adaptations.

Furthermore, we tackle the trite but true fact that the Internet is still not available everywhere and present strategies for ensuring that the necessary functionality for so-called picking apps is also available offline.