Alex talks about a blueprint for grocery marketplaces at Spryker Excite

a guy speaking on a stage and presenting flyby.shop

Alex is talking at the Spryker Excite about what makes an eGrocery marketplace truly unique.

Blueprint for grocery marketplaces

Andreas, Alexander and Martin got to know each other during the Creators Camp Lungau organized by Silicon Castles. They came up with the idea of building an eCommerce system that would enable the 100,000 people stuck in traffic jams on the A10 in the summer to buy products from regional suppliers from the region (the world behind the noise barrier, so to speak). Drones would be used to deliver the products to the cars in the traffic jam. That was the starting signal for VIABIRDS. The idea fascinated so much that based on that, a company was founded with the goal to develop eGrocery software.  
 
This is how Alexander Planitzer, CEO of VIABIRDS, tells at Spryker Expo 2022 how the company’s foundation was shaped according to this idea: 
 
„Our story began back in 2019, my co-founder Martin and I were attending a so-called design thinking workshop. This took place in our home village, so just for your understanding we grew up in a very rural Austrian area. We have nice lakes, we have nice mountains for skiing, but besides that there is really nothing. The next bigger city, Salzburg, is around two hours away. So, the overall theme of this design thinking workshop was the question: how a faraway region can strengthen its economy as well as enhance the quality of life for the people living there. 
 
This region where we grew up called Lungau has one big problem, it’s mostly inaccessible for the big highway the Tauern Autobahn crossing it. It’s a popular vacation spot for a lot of Austrian and German tourists, but that’s it.  So, on that day Martin and I had the following idea: let’s develop an E-Commerce System that allows people to order products while they are stuck in traffic and then use drones to deliver the products to the customers. 
 
The idea was to firstly create a better traffic jam experience for our region and to secondly create a sales channel for our local producers.  Now I know this is a very futuristic idea and that it also sounds stupid in some ways, but this was fascinating us so much that we decided to found a company with the vision of making eGrocery convenient for everyone. Some weeks later Martin and I had a meeting with Asfinag which is the Austrian public highway operator. We had prepared some nice slides, some nice simulations and we presented our idea. 
 
I can tell you those guys thought we were absolutely crazy and so there was no second meeting. But the goal of our company at that time was to develop E-Commerce System for eGrocery in regions with a very low consumer density. A lot of companies have successfully shown that eGrocery can be done in bigger cities with a high consumer density, but our goal is to do eGrocery outside bigger cities and to even bring it to rural regions.”


the two founders giving thumbs up in an office environment

How the idea behind VIABIRDS came to be and how it was executed

Founding story

Tamsweg, April 7, 2020 
 
Today marks the official opening of Lungau's first online department store. It is a joint project of the recently founded Lungau start-up VIABIRDS Technologies GmbH and the Wirtschaftsverein Tamsweg.  
 
For the first time, the online department store allows customers to shop online at various regional stores, such as a bakery, the regional organic farmer, a bookstore, but also at the branches of the Wirtschaftsverein Tamsweg in St. Michael and Tamsweg. All goods can be picked up on the same day at a so-called flyby Station and are either loaded directly into the trunk or simply handed over without a long wait. This saves customers time and kilometres, reduces social contacts and thus the risk of contagion, and strengthens the regional economy.  
 
Here, these two partners balance and complement each other perfectly. VIABIRDS Technologies GmbH provides the technology and manages the online store, while the Wirtschaftsverein Tamsweg is responsible for the relationships with the other stores as well as the operational implementation, i.e. the compilation of the purchases as well as their handover. 
 
"The idea was born ten months ago at the first Creators Camp of the Biosphere Lab Lungau. We are happy that we now have the opportunity to implement our idea in Lungau so quickly together with the Wirtschaftsverein Tamsweg. Also, a big thank you to the Lungau business owners who participated right away. We are already working on expanding the range of goods with other regional partners and constantly improving our offer. We are still at the beginning!", says Martin Macheiner, Managing Director of VIABIRDS Technologies GmbH. 
 
"For us as the Wirtschaftsverein Tamsweg, it was clear from the first conversation that this is an exceptionally innovative approach. We were enthusiastic right from the start and entered this partnership with VIABIRDS, where a young and dynamic team very quickly set up the online department store technically and we were thus able to start immediately in this critical phase of the Corona crisis. In a very short time, we succeeded in creating a new sales channel for our businesses, but also for many smaller stores, which would otherwise involve a high operational effort and very high costs. We are pleased to have created another significant contribution to strengthen the regional economy with this online department store," says Heimo Prodinger, Managing Director of Wirtschaftsverein Tamsweg. 
 
"The technology company, which was only founded in January 2020, clearly demonstrates the high level of innovation we have in Lungau and shows what can be achieved when there is cooperation at a regional level. I am particularly pleased that this company emerged from our Biosphere Lab initiative in May 2019 and that this possibility has been created for the entire Lungau region. Now this is the first multi-networked online store in the district with two pick-up stations (flyby Stations) in Tamsweg and St. Michael," notes Manfred Sampl, chairman of the Lungau Regional Association. 
 
"VIABIRDS is an outstanding example of the fact that innovation and regionality do not have to be mutually exclusive. For small businesses as well as for established trading companies, VIABIRDS is a new distribution channel that will last beyond the current crisis. This strengthens the business location Lungau. The size of the companies alone is no longer decisive; speed and flexibility are the prevailing criteria. I trust the VIABIRDS to have a great future," says LAbg. Wolfgang Pfeifenberger, Lungau Chamber of Commerce. 
 
"As a UNESCO biosphere park, it is of great concern to us that new ideas are not only developed on paper in our region, but that they are also put into practice with courage and confidence. With this Lungau online store, for the first time all regional providers can easily offer and sell their products and services online. This not only makes our regional diversity even more visible, but also makes it available via new media, which in the age of digitalization is an important contribution to Lungau as a business location. I congratulate these young initiatives and wish those responsible all the best for its successful implementation," said Markus Schaflechner, Managing Director UNESCO Biosphärenpark Lungau. 
 
"Raiffeisenbank Lungau supports the first Lungau online department store because it provides a new impulse for the regional economy, especially in these tough times. I know the founders of VIABIRDS Technologies GmbH and am pleased that we can accompany the young Lungau company as a partner. Together we look forward to running a successful online network in our region," says Georg Eberharth, Managing Director of Raiffeisenbank Lungau.  
 
“I am immensely proud that the Silicon Castles team was able to support the VIABIRDS launch during these most difficult weeks of the Corona crisis. It was an unusual situation for all of us, but the sheer commitment, energy and speed with which this project got off the ground certainly shows its outstanding potential, which will prevail this crisis and rise to great heights. I would also like to express my sincere thanks to our Lungau partners for their great support!", says Andreas Spechtler, Managing Director of Silicon Castles and member of the Supervisory Board of VIABIRDS Technologies GmbH. 


three guys standing beside two flags and looking into the camera

The story behind the opening of the first online store in the Lungau

Opening Lungau online store

On 25.11.2020 the last virtual event of Start-up Salzburg for this year took place. At "From Seed To Scaleup" founders talked about their successes and the stories behind them and discussed with experts of the start-up landscape. 
 
Start-ups go through different phases in the development of new products as well as in the market conquest up to the transnational expansion. The starting point is the so-called seed phase, one already has a business idea and an idea of the consumer group, develops a business model and makes a market analysis. This phase is also called the start-up phase. After that, the company is built up, including its distribution and local market launch. Ideally - since innovative start-ups are known to be designed to scale - the start-up becomes a scale-up, showing that it is growing rapidly in the local market and thus can now seek out new markets. The Homecoming Start-ups event presented three start-ups representing these three phases, with VIABIRDS Technologies warmly invited as a representative of the seed phase. 
 
Learning from mistakes and moving on. Alexander Planitzer and Martin Macheiner told how their company was created from a yellow post-it. The Lungau-based technology company is working on a mobile eCommerce system for people who want to shop regionally conveniently and easily while driving by. Commuters shop online at the Flyby-store, their goods are then delivered to one of the Flyby stations at a convenient transport point, and from there the purchase is then picked up on the way home. This idea was born at the Creators Camp of the Biosphere Lab Lungau, according to the motto at that time: "Traffic jam as an opportunity". 
 
Already there they got some feedback for their idea - positive and negative. At the time, the plan was to deliver groceries by drone, but when they presented this idea to Asfinag, the operator of Austrian highways, everything turned out quite differently: "The appointment was a complete disaster, but the idea of e-commerce for commuters stuck with us," says founder Alexander.  They took the criticism to heart, questioned their idea and developed it further. Says co-founder Martin: "It's hard work, but I look forward to every Monday because then I can hit the ground running again and work on my ideas." In the meantime, VIABIRDS operate the first online department store in Lungau together with the Tamsweg business association. And even the drone idea has not been discarded, but will probably be taken up again in a few years.


Logo of startup salzburg formed like a S on a turkish background

The story of how VIABIRDS started to grow

Startup Salzburg

The end of 2021 is upon us and in so many facades this year has been very special for us. Christmas is the time to hold still and look back at the last twelve months of the year. One year ago, VIABIRDS consisted of only three people, now a year later we are a team of fourteen people with one mission. We want to rethink digital pick-up commerce and develop shopping solutions for people on the move. 
 
Let’s recap the year 2021 with some facts: we closed our seed-round in March, we successfully launched our project “flyby.shop” with three flyby-stations in Salzburg, we developed more than 500.000 lines of code for our software platform and shot more than 10.000 videos assets. Every month we were able to onboard a new bird to the team, in average hold more than 150 meetings and most importantly, with flyby.shop we set a cornerstone for a scalable digitized solution in one of the fastest growing markets, eGrocery. 
 
All those great things were only possible because of so many people believing in us and our company, which is why we would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you: thank you to our customers, to our partners and to our mentors as well as a very special thank you to our shareholders and to our board who supported us in our mission to create and develop ecommerce solutions for people on the move from the first day on. 
 
Finally, we would like to thank our awesome team. We strongly believe that great things in business are never achieved by a few, but always by a whole team working together. Spending the last twelve months with each and every one of you has been an amazing journey and we are already beyond excited for all our future plans and upcoming challenges.


a red christmas ball on a fir

Christmas greetings from our founders and a summery on 2021

Christmas greetings from our founders

From May 11 to 12, 2022, salz21 connected local businesses, startups and investors with internationally leading companies and bundles the synergies of already existing, leading initiatives that deal with future issues of our economic region – salz21 is Salzburg’s first innovation festival! On those two days, startups from different fields, presented solutions for burning issues like Artificial Intelligence, New Mobility and Life Science. In addition to the presentations there were numerous events, lectures and workshops about topics in tourism, culture, robotics, business innovation and networking. With program points that promoted the innovative potential of executives as well as employees of small and medium-sized enterprises, the event focused on the development of human capital in companies.  

Those startups were selected by experts like Startup Salzburg, Upper Austria tech2b incubator, Austrian Angel Investors Association and Travel Industry Club. Among the selected startups were VIABIRDS! Our CEO Alex spoke about E-Commerce: 

15-20 years ago, we would have said eCommerce means to create a website and give users the possibility to buy products on the website. And next. We transfer the product to the customer. In most cases this means we physically ship the products to the costumer’s home. So far so good.  

And today. Let’s see it from a bird’s point of view: Very simplified we put the hypotheses into the room that since the beginning of eCommerce the core elements are still the same. We must think of how we can get a user to buy stuff on a digital medium and then we must figure out how to get the product to the customer. One essential difference between now and 15 years ago is that today a lot of products are digital as well, that means that the “transfer” to the user is way easier. Let’s just quickly think of the music industry.  

OF COURSE eCommerce has changed in the last 15 years tremendously, in terms of technology, in terms of marketing and in terms of logistics, but it’s very core elements I would say it’s still the same. So, when we talk about eCommerce, we personally would simplify it down to these two questions:

How do we get customers to buy digital products?  

How the hell do we get the product to the customer?  

a guy presenting on a stage with yellow couches

Alex spoke at the Salz21 about the CHANGES & FUTURE TRENDS in eGrocery & Retail. 

Alex spoke at the Salz21

The Spryker Excite 2022 was one of the biggest Commerce Conferences in Germany and we are completely thrilled for winning an Excited Oskar – our project flyby.shop won the Customer Award for the best marketplace which is represented through a golden antilope head. More than 400 participants were attending the Spryker Excite in Berlin and thousands more joined online – a lot of inspiration, insights and predictions. Some of the guests were Michael Phelps, former US swimmer and multiple olympic champion. Dr. Camille Wardrop Alleyne, Ed.D. Rocket scientist, speaker and humanitarian. Bob Iger, Executive Chairman of The Walt Disney Company and Chairman of the Board of Directors. Elizabeth Theophille, Chief Technology Transformation Officer (CTTO) and Head of NBS IT. Tom Sietas, German apnoea diver, world champion, keynote speaker and motivational trainer.  

On top of winning an Award, our CEO Alex was also invited to speech about eGrocery! We shared our knowledge in front of hundreds of industry experts. We talked about how Spryker helps us to build a digital blueprint for grocery marketplaces: 

We decided to build up our eGrocery platform on Spryker. We would say we all know that Spryker is a very powerful framework which basically allows nearly everything to be build. On the other hand, the team working with Spryker needs to have certain seniority – one tutorial on Youtube on how to develop in PHP will be too less.  

But for us it’s not the fact that we can “build everything”. Lets talk about a little story by Paul Rulkens: 

When Albert Einstein was teaching at Oxford one day, he gave an exam to the senior class of physics students. He was walking on the campus and all of a sudden Einstein’s assistant said: “Dr. Einstein this exam you just gave to the senior class, isn’t it the exact same exam you gave last year to the exact same class”. Einstein said: “Yes, yes exactly the same.” 

“But Dr. Einstein how could you do that?” the assistant asked. “Well ...” Einstein said. “The answers have changed”.  

The answers have changed! What the hell does this mean for us? We see so many similarities between us. Since the beginning of eCommerce, we all want to increase the conversion rate, to increase the customer engagement and so on and so on.  

But the way we achieve the exact goals again and again is constantly changing. So, it is the ability to quickly adapt our technology what matters the most to us, especially in the fast-growing sector of eGrocery.  

We are a Startup that means things we have decided yesterday are no longer valid today. Even when you are not a Startup Digital Business and especially eGrocery is so constantly changing that for us the highest value of the Spryker Framework is the fast adaptability. Like Einstein said the questions might be the same but the answers may have changed. And how fast you can change the answers is key. 

a golden award shaped like a head of a goat

The Spryker Excite 2022 was one of the biggest Commerce Conferences in Germany and we are completely thrilled for winning an Excited Oskar!

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More Highlights

Blueprint for grocery marketplaces

Founding story

Opening Lungau online store