Photo: SpartanNash/Family Fare
Grocers have been pinging shoppers' smartphones with personalized offers for some time, but at this point, the practice is more hyped than common. The expansion of BOPIS, however, may offer a way for grocers to get their personalization efforts rolling.
That’s the hope of Dave Staples, president and COO at SpartanNash, which is introducing a new BOPIS platform that includes a component tied to targeted promotions. Beyond focusing on the BOPIS in-store experience, the platform integrates each of SpartanNash's banner websites and apps, as well as recipe offerings, to capitalize on the personalization level accessible online.
“As we rollout this click-and-collect, it takes our whole sort of e-commerce and personalization efforts to a next level,” said Mr. Staples on the grocer’s recent fourth-quarter conference call. “I think it gets pretty exciting the things we can do, from tailoring the ad when you get onto a website, to really targeted promotion, to understanding how we segment our customers better, to make sure we have the right offers to the right segments. As opposed to clustering stores, we’ll begin to cluster customers.”
SpartanNash will introduce the new platform at a Family Fare location in the greater Grand Rapids area. If successful, the program will reach an additional 25 stores by the year's end. The grocer already has nine locations using different versions of click-and-collect.
Mr. Staples said SpartanNash continues to make progress on its personalization initiatives led by its Yes! loyalty program. He added, “We continue to really be excited about where we see it taking us and the kind of information and data we can use from share of wallet and how we approach the consumer to get them to expand that with us in categories they are not shopping as fully as possible. As well as just really beginning to understand the likes and dislikes of individual customers and being able to tailor offerings to those likes and dislikes.”