CHICAGO and Quincy, Mass., May 13, 2008 – Information Resources, Inc. and The Stop & Shop Supermarket Company, one of the nation’s premier food retailers, announce the expanded use of the IRI Loyalty Analytics Assortment Planner solution for Stop & Shop’s assortment planning efforts. IRI’s Assortment Planner allows Stop & Shop to create customer-centric assortments in Stop & Shop and Giant Food stores using store clusters based on Stop & Shop’s customer loyalty data. This partnership helps Stop & Shop align its product mix to customer demand in each of its stores.
Stop & Shop and IRI worked closely to develop the initial release of Assortment Planner during the roll out of Stop & Shop’s Value Improvement Program (VIP). Stop & Shop is leveraging the IRI Assortment Planner solution to analyze the results of this merchandising effort and to develop refined, localized assortments for each of its store clusters.
Stop & Shop will fully utilize the solution’s ability to integrate multiple data sources that are vital to proper business analytics and planning. These sources include internal and syndicated point-of-sale (POS), financial, loyalty, panel, and space planning data. The successful integration of this data will help Stop & Shop gain organic sales growth through more effective assortment localization. Also, Stop & Shop will have the capability to reduce out-of-stock items through more effective shelf planning. Ultimately, Stop & Shop will deliver assortments with more relevance and value to customers in each of its 574 stores.
“By integrating our previously untapped customer and loyalty insights, we are taking a completely new approach to the way we create assortments,” said Don Sussman, executive vice president of merchandising and supply chain, The Stop & Shop Supermarket Company. “The insights derived from the IRI Assortment Planner will provide Stop & Shop with the ability to manage our entire effort, from planning to implementation to the customer. This is the best way to truly differentiate Stop & Shop, and we believe IRI offers the best solution to help us reach our objectives. In the end, using these insights will create a better shopping experience that better serves our customers.”
Specifically, the IRI Loyalty Analytics Assortment Planner Solution delivers the following benefits:
- Generates improved business results through customer relevancy, so that the customer is at the center of the business planning process.
- Cuts planning cycle time by automating previously manual data preparation processes.
- Leverages Stop & Shop’s customer loyalty data by using store clusters based on Stop & Shop’s customer behavioral segments. This effectively localizes assortments placing items most relevant to the customer in each store.
- Reduces data errors by successfully integrating internal and syndicated POS data, plus financial, loyalty, panel, and space planning data. Users no longer have to use multiple spreadsheets from different data sources.
- Improves decision making through the use of scenario planning, which simulates decisions before they are put into action. Users can plan multiple scenarios by store cluster to optimize assortments and anticipate financial results.
- Delivers on-going feedback through period updates and built-in scorecarding using financial and customer metrics.
- Offers the potential for internal and external collaboration through a comprehensive set of features letting users share, review, and edit assortments.
“We are pleased to extend our long-standing relationship with Stop & Shop beyond customer segmentation and loyalty analytics to the expanded use of IRI Loyalty Analytics Assortment Planner,” said Mike Blyth, executive vice president, practice leader, IRI Loyalty Analytics. “Our expanded relationship will deliver an unprecedented customer-focused assortment planning capability, and ultimately, a competitive advantage for Stop & Shop.”
About Stop & Shop
The Stop & Shop Supermarket Company, based in Quincy, Massachusetts, employs more than 59,000 associates and operates 389 stores throughout Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maine, New Hampshire, New York and New Jersey. For more information on Stop & Shop visit www.stopandshop.com.
About Giant Food
Giant Food LLC, headquartered in Landover, MD, operates 185 supermarkets in Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and the District of Columbia, and employs more than 22,000 associates. Included within the 185 stores are 166 full-service pharmacies. For more on Giant, visit www.giantfood.com.
About Information Resources, Inc.
IRI is the world’s leading provider of consumer, shopper, and retail market intelligence and insights supporting 95 percent of the FORTUNE Global 500 consumer packaged goods (CPG), retail and healthcare companies. Only IRI offers the unique combination of integrated market information, automated and predictive analytics, innovative enabling technologies, and domain expertise. With IRI, leading retailers and manufacturers are able to quickly discover breakthrough insights driving smarter decisions and actions across the enterprise for breakthrough results. Companies around the world depend on IRI for improved productivity, stronger brands, and dramatic revenue growth. For more information, visit http://us.infores.com.
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IRI CONTACT:
John McIndoe
E-mail: john.mcindoe@infores.com
Phone: (312) 474-3862
Fax: (312) 474-2512