Supermarket Perimeter - March 2021 - 27

Choosing the best format
Moving into 2021, many retail customers who use Applied Data
Corporation's newly acquired ShopperKit have signiﬁcant plans to
further expand ecommerce offerings, moving into increasing online
capabilities for the deli-prepared category, said Steve Paro, the
former head of ShopperKit and the newly appointed chief operating
officer of ADC.
When is comes to online ordering, the deli-prepared category
is following the same storyline that produce did as fresh
fruits and vegetables moved online. Retailers worried that
shoppers would be reluctant to buy fresh online when they
couldn't see or touch the item before buying it. But what
retailers saw instead was that when consumers had a good
experience, they kept coming back online for more. Paro
expects deli-prepared to experience the same trajectory.
The biggest difference between moving fresh categories
like produce online and deli-prepared, Paro pointed out, is a
little more planning of logistics.
" It becomes a matter of what level of assortment are we doing? "
Paro said. " Are we going to allow customers to just order as if they
were at the counter themselves, or do we want to have ﬁxed-weight
assortments where everything is prepackaged ahead of time? "
Paro suggested that retailers make report-based logistical
solutions. If data shows that demand for a certain item is
higher, retailers should consider prepacking items for orders,
while less popular items might be better prepared on an
as-needed basis to avoid potential waste. ShopperKit's
services can help retailers automate that workﬂow.
ShopperKit assists retailers with the fulﬁllment side of
online orders. The fulﬁllment software can differentiate
between regular grocery items and service counterprepared items. The prepared items can be routed into a
dedicated workﬂow for the department workers, so they know
which items they need to prepare.
" This allows store associates to be picking up orders in parallel
to department workers doing the prep work, " Paro said. " When
the department workers have completed that prep work the
application triggers a notiﬁcation so that the person doing the
order picking can circle back around and pick up those items.
It allows for the workﬂow to happen naturally. "
Under ADC, ShopperKit will join the software comany's
suite of solutions offered through FreshIQ such as
recipe management, label printing, inventory and waste
management, food traceability, production planning, and
ordering. With the addition of ShopperKit's eCommerce
fulﬁllment, ADC's products will deliver streamlined store
operations across the entire food lifecycle.
" This is an exciting time in ADC history. The ShopperKit
team and platform are helping retailers gain control of their in-store
fulﬁllment strategies, a critical component required to maintain their
digital brands, " said Shamus Hines, chief executive officer of ADC. " As
a company, we are committed to enhancing all store operations for
food retailers. The addition of ShopperKit will give our customers a
uniﬁed approach to their omnichannel strategy while providing them

Ten percent
of the orders
that we see
on Mercato
include items
from the
deli. Having
those options
available is
a great way
to get folks
ordering
larger baskets
through being
able to see all
of the different
options and
being able to
think about
what they
want to eat
for dinner
that night. "
Gauri Munuswamy,
Mercato
MARCH 2021 - 27

Supermarket Perimeter - March 2021

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