Cuesol - Stop & Shop to Pilot Personal Shopping... -
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Published on: 12/1/2002
Last Visited: 9/6/2004
"We want to make the consumer shopping experience better, and the best way to do that is to give back customer data to shoppers in a way they can use," says Curt Avallone, vice president of marketing at Stop & Shop.
"Until now, the necessary technology was not available, and the best we could do was make special offers via direct mail," he continues.
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"The purpose is not to make our loyal Golden Grahams customers an offer that could entice them to switch brands or products," Avallone says, in explaining how the shopping assistant works.
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"Special offers were tied to their purchasing behavior, as well as what weekly specials we offered that best met their shopping patterns," says Avallone.
The personalization didn't stop with special offers.The units were also programmed to empower customers to place orders from in-store departments and retail partners.Again using the customer's previous purchase history, the unit would ask the customer if she wanted her "usual order", or if she'd like to make a new choice from the ATM-like touch-screen menu, Grimes explains.
"For example, they could make a deli order from anywhere in the store and not have to wait at the counter", says Avallone.
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"To provide personalization, we felt we needed a mobile, live, wireless device with wheels that allowed customers to stop in any or multiple locations," Avallone explains.
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"While Unipower's strength resides in the technology's software, Symbol is a leader in self-scanning and wireless technology," Avallone says."They are also a close partner to our sister company - Albert Heijin in the Netherlands - having developed their hand-held customer self-scanning technology."
The technology enhancements provided by Symbol will support Stop & Shop's anticipated three-store beta test scheduled to launch the first quarter of 2003.While Stop & Shop didn't reveal the locations of the three test stores, "These stores provide a good cross-section of demographics," Avallone says.
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"Besides the dedicated checkout lane that only requires customers to bag and pay for groceries at a manned lane, we will also feature an automated pay station," Avallone says.
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If we do, we will look to roll the units into more stores," Avallone explains.
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