Connecting METRO: The Future of Smart Retail

METRO S.A. is 100% Greek-owned company. Today, METRO is one of the country’s leading food retail and wholesale groups.

METRO operates more than 290 My market and My market Local retail stores and 50 METRO Cash & Carry wholesale centers throughout Greece. The company employs over 11,000 people, being one of the largest workforces in Greece. Continuous investment in infrastructure and logistics remains a strategic priority, including the modernization of distribution centers with a strong focus on operational efficiency, technological advancement, and energy optimization.

Among its recent awards are the titles of Retailer of the Year 2025 at the Supermarket Awards and Energy Efficient Company of the Year 2025 at the Energy Efficiency Awards. Furthermore, METRO has been certified as a Top Employer 2026, reflecting its people-centered culture.

Guided by its core values, METRO continues to invest in innovation, sustainability, and social responsibility, contributing actively to the Greek economy and local communities.

Scaling Without the Complexity: A New Approach to Enterprise Networking

As METRO continued to grow and expand its nationwide footprint, the complexity of its technology infrastructure became increasingly apparent. Retail & Wholesale Stores and distribution centers operated on networking solutions that had been deployed gradually over the years by multiple vendors.

Within this environment, the company’s evolving business needs had begun to exceed the capabilities of its existing setup. Wi-Fi and IoT convergence had become essential, as each store depended on dozens of IoT devices — such as handhelds, electronic shelf labels and temperature sensors — all requiring stable, secure, and centrally managed wireless connectivity.

The need to maintain multiple secure, segmented networks for shops, headquarters, and customer free Wi-Fi, combined with the lack of centralized visibility, made it difficult to monitor performance, troubleshoot issues, and maintain consistent security and access policies. For a company operating in more than 340 retail locations supported by an extensive supply chain, this level of operational complexity was no longer sustainable.

Additionally, the need for automation has become critical.

A Unified Wi-Fi 6/7 Architecture Built for the IoT Era

Recognizing the scale and complexity of METRO’s nationwide retail operations, Huawei proposed and implemented a unified, modern, and highly efficient networking solution centrally managed through the iMaster NCE platform. The solution is based on an SD-Branch architecture deployed across all retail & wholesale stores and distribution centers, designed to support secure, reliable, and scalable connectivity while addressing both traditional wireless networking requirements and the rapidly growing IoT demands of a smart retail environment.

Furthermore, on the LAN side, the solution integrates PoE switches with advanced Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 7 IoT-enabled Access Points, creating a unified access layer for both connectivity and IoT services. All Access Points are powered directly through PoE switching, simplifying deployment while simultaneously providing native IoT connectivity for Electronic Shelf Labels (ESL) in METRO stores.

This architectural approach eliminates additional IoT hardware at the store level, significantly reducing capital expenditure, infrastructure footprint, cabling requirements, and overall energy consumption. Centralized management via iMaster NCE provides a single point of control, ensuring consistent network policies, streamlined operations, and real-time visibility across every device and every store.

Through this unified SD-Branch and IoT-ready architecture, Huawei delivered not only a technological upgrade but a strategic operational enhancement. METRO benefits from optimized operating costs, simplified network architecture, improved energy efficiency, and a fully scalable platform capable of supporting future IoT applications and smart retail initiatives. The solution now serves as a robust foundation for METRO’s ongoing digital transformation, enabling the organization to scale its retail operations with greater efficiency, agility, and confidence.

Proven Operational Benefits Across METRO’s Footprint

The implementation of Huawei’s unified SD-Branch and IoT-enabled solution delivered immediate and measurable benefits across METRO’s retail network. By integrating IoT functionality directly into the Access Points and eliminating the need for standalone IoT gateways, METRO significantly reduced wiring complexity, cabling requirements, and hardware procurement. The consolidated access-layer architecture requires fewer devices per store, simplifies deployment, and lowers maintenance demands, delivering clear cost efficiencies at scale.

A major advantage of the integrated IoT architecture is the deployment of Electronic Shelf Labels (ESL), which enable real-time price updates, faster promotional execution, and improved pricing accuracy across stores. At the same time, it substantially reduces daily paper usage, contributing to sustainability goals while lowering recurring operational costs associated with manual label management.

In parallel, the SDN architecture delivers centralized control, improved resilience, and consistent performance, enabling METRO to efficiently manage a geographically distributed retail network.

The adoption of Wi-Fi 7 Access Points further enhanced network performance, offering higher bandwidth and lower latency. Store employees now benefit from faster and more reliable access to business-critical applications, improving operational speed and service quality, while customers enjoy stable, high-quality connectivity even during peak hours.