Case study

How Albert Heijn sparked entrepreneurial thinking across 100,000 employees through play

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%

revenue growth on selected focus products

%

higher weekly sales growth than comparable stores

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employees across the Netherlands with access to the game

stores played the game for 3 to 24 months

The project at a glance

How Albert Heijn cultivated entrepreneurial ownership

What if every team in a supermarket could experience the thrill of running their own mini‑business? What if each employee could learn to pitch ideas, trade shares, and see real impact on sales?

At &ranj, we collaborated with Albert Heijn (Dutch supermarket giant) to design Appie Aandeel, a mobile game that turns store departments into shareholders, trades real-time performance, and embeds commercial awareness into everyday tasks.

The result? Departments engaged in playful competition, driving creativity, ownership, and measurable sales growth.

Our process

Helping 100,000 employees think like business owners

Albert Heijn needed more than productivity. They needed to spark an entrepreneurial spirit in their team. Employee engagement varied, and real ownership of sales was rare, especially among part-time or entry-level staff.

The challenge: how to shift mindsets from “following protocols” to “innovating for impact”, in a way that’s inclusive, motivational, and tied to real-world outcomes.

How we developed the game

Working side-by-side with Albert Heijn stakeholders, sales data experts, and retail teams, we co‑created Appie Aandeel through a playful, iterative approach.

  • We worked closely with store staff, data experts, and internal teams to co-create the concept through a playful, iterative process.

  • Co‑creation workshops helped us define entrepreneurial behaviors and game mechanics grounded in real store dynamics.

  • We balanced real-time sales integration with easy pitches and trading interfaces so each team could own their ideas and outcomes.

  • Early prototypes were tested in a few stores. Our feedback loops refined everything from UI clarity and business impact to motivational storytelling.

  • We layered in visual metaphors (departments as shareholders, sales as value), making intangible behaviors tangible and fun.

  • We scaled the experience across hundreds of locations with light onboarding, manager toolkits, and seamless digital integration.

 

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The solution

Turning shop floor actions into strategy

Appie Aandeel is a mobile experience where every store department becomes a shareholder. Every week:

  • Pitch & focus: Teams select a “focus product” and pitch a sales-boosting idea.

  • Trade & invest: Colleagues “buy shares” in the department they believe in.

  • Sales live‑feed: Real-time data updates share value—grow sales, grow value.

  • Impact seen, learning earned: Teams watch their choices come alive—turning commercial thinking into visible results.

These mechanics weren't just for fun: they shaped new habits on the shop floors. They triggered employees to think commercially, collaborate across roles and take pride in achieving results.

Screens

It's not just about more turnover. People felt way more connected and involved.

- An Albert Heijn store manager

The impact

When learning drives real-world outcomes

Appie Aandeel has now reached nearly 600 Albert Heijn stores, with game participation spanning from 3 to 24 months. By weaving game mechanics into daily operations, the initiative has sparked measurable commercial results.

The impact speaks for itself:

  • Participating stores saw 50% to 85% higher weekly sales growth compared to non-participating locations.

  • During a focused rollout period (weeks 6–18 of 2018), stores with over 25% of employees actively playing the game experienced a remarkable 84.59% increase in weekly sales growth.

  • Across a broader timeframe (weeks 48 of 2017 to 25 of 2018), those same stores still outperformed others by 52.98%.

  • Some stores achieved up to 300% revenue growth on the product they chose to spotlight during the game.

These outcomes were validated by independent research from the Rotterdam School of Management. This reinforces what we’ve seen on the ground: when employees take ownership of their performance, and enjoy doing it, real change happens.

Appie Aandeel

Why it worked

Serious game, serious thinking

Appie Aandeel's success was in the way it translated abstract goals into tangible experiences.

The real-time dashboard gave teams constant visibility into their performance, turning data into something they could act on immediately. The ability to choose their own focus products and pitch their own ideas gave players a real sense of autonomy.

Rather than following set instructions, teams made strategic decisions that mattered. The share-based storytelling created a natural sense of ownership.

Friendly competition between teams added just the right level of social energy, encouraging creativity and peer-to-peer support.

Together, these elements shifted mindsets, blending business learning with intrinsic motivation. The result was a change in behavior that directly influenced commercial performance.

Services we provided:

  • Co-creation workshops with retail teams and stakeholders

  • Custom serious game design & development

  • Real-time sales data integration

  • Iterative prototyping and user testing

  • Behavioral design & gamification consultancy

  • On-the-job learning experience strategy

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