What would you improve about our online shop? Share your ideas for Hackfest – no mincing words!

In late June, daily business takes the backseat for a few hundred employees at Digitec Galaxus. Why? Because it’s hackathon season, or Hackfest, as we call it. During this annual three-day intensive coding session, the employees at Digitec Galaxus break out of their daily routine to try out wild ideas and dabble in unconventional and experimental projects. People from different departments team up to solve problems or work on prototypes for new shop features.

At the end, each idea is pitched, and the participants vote for their favourite one. Prizes are awarded for the best entries. The icing on the cake is the Founders Award, presented by Digitec founders and co-owners Oli Herren and Florian Teuteberg.

Hackfest ideas featured in our shop

Hackfest is by no means just an event to go crazy. Some of the features you’ll be familiar with as a Digitec or Galaxus customer were originally developed as a proof of concept at previous events. Later, these features, which were still half-baked not fully developed, were neatly integrated into the shop’s code.

Here’s an example: The feature that allows customers to maintain the shop’s product data. If you come across an error or information that’s missing in our shop, you can correct or add in Wikipedia style. The Community entered the first rough idea for this feature in 2022. It was then fleshed out by a team at Hackfest in the same year before going live as a new feature in January 2024.

An idea from Hackfest 2023 is currently being implemented. Animated elements will soon make surfing and shopping even more fun. But more on that when the feature actually goes live.

And now let’s hear your ideas for Hackfest 2024! Simply write them in the comments section below. The more upvotes a suggestion gets, the more likely a team will look into it at Hackfest. If you need some inspiration, check out what was worked on at Hackfest 2023.

A report on this year’s Hackfest will be published after the event right here in the magazine.