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Weis Markets engages more closely with customers

AI-based platform to help regional grocer personalize marketing across channels

Russell Redman

June 17, 2019

3 Min Read
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Weis Markets aims to get closer to its shoppers with the adoption of an artificial intelligence (AI)-based customer engagement system.

The Sunbury, Pa.-based grocer is readying to go live with the Birdzi real-time digital ecosystem, designed with regional food retailers in mind. The platform’s AI relationship engine uses several hundred attributes for each shopper — updated with each purchase — to give grocery retailers a higher degree of relevancy in tailoring customer marketing and meeting shoppers’ individual needs.

“It’s an AI platform that will give true one-to-one marketing for all customers, analyzing every consumer’s basket and then taking that data and surfacing to the top the offers and rewards that are most relevant,” Ron Bonacci, vice president of advertising and marketing at Weis Markets, told SN in an interview.

Instead of relying only on historical purchase data, Birdzi’s cloud-based platform integrates with its white-label mobile and web apps to create a real-time view of shopper intent, the Iselin, N.J.-based company said. That allows retailers like Weis to make “up-to-the-second” recommendations and offers based on a customer’s behavior and location. 

“Evaluating everything that’s going on out in the technology space, we really had to make sure we met tomorrow’s needs today and make sure we’re as relevant as any grocery chain in America,” Bonacci said, noting that Birdzi will help Weis build and reinforce customer relationships.

Related:Weis Markets eyes more store upgrades in 2019

“The opportunity is what they call ‘lifetime valuable customers,’ to keep them engaged long-term and, hopefully, they will continue to grow sales,” he explained. “We want to keep those customers within our four walls, tell them about the new and exciting products coming on market, and talk to them about their health and wellness initiatives, kids, pets and those kinds of things that are most relevant to their basket.”

Through Birdzi, Weis can engage with customers via mobile, web, email and text channels and interact with them throughout their shopping journey. As a result, the supermarket chain can evaluate shoppers’ needs whether they’re at home, on the go or in-store and deliver personalized offers and information.

“It will be up to the consumer to choose which channel they want us to use. In some cases, it may be text or mostly emails, and in other cases it might be just available to them on the website when they go on,” Bonacci said. “But the mobile app, in most cases, will be the most prevalent application.”

Birdzi’s solution, too, also gleans insights from the grocer’s Weis Rewards program. “It takes all of the attributes out of the loyalty program, adds those data points to their cloud, does all of the massaging, and then gives us back relevant insights to the customer and a predictive model,” he said.

Related:Weis Markets closes out fiscal year on upside

He noted that Weis also will be able to develop a more personalized wellness offering for customers. On its website, Birdzi said its system uses product attribution data and evaluates an item based on a shopper’s health conditions and dietary preferences, allowing customers to create a “store within a store” based on their individual profile. In turn, the platform helps retailers assess their assortments based on shopper needs and provides them with analytics for actionable insights.

“It allows consumers to self-identify their profile,” Bonacci said. “So if they have disease states like diabetes or special needs — peanut butter or shellfish allergies and those kinds of things — it allows us to make sure we give them what they need.”

Weis piloted the Birdzi technology for about six weeks and soon plans to implement it chainwide, according to Bonacci.

“We have another technology, NCR’s AMS platform, to roll out in August, so this [Birdzi] is going to be running behind the scenes and doing certain things as it relates to customers’ direct mail, email, text messaging and so forth,” he said. “And then it will be fully integrated when the new AMS platform is rolled out.”

Overall, Weis operates 200 stores in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, West Virginia and Virginia.

About the Author

Russell Redman

Senior Editor
Supermarket News

Russell Redman has served as senior editor at Supermarket News since April 2018, his second tour with the publication. In his current role, he handles daily news coverage for the SN website and contributes news and features for the print magazine, as well as participates in special projects, podcasts and webinars and attends industry events. Russ joined SN from Racher Press Inc.’s Chain Drug Review and Mass Market Retailers magazines, where he served as desk/online editor for more than nine years, covering the food/drug/mass retail sector. 

Russell Redman’s more than 30 years of experience in journalism span a range of editorial manager, editor, reporter/writer and digital roles at a variety of publications and websites covering a breadth of industries, including retailing, pharmacy/health care, IT, digital home, financial technology, financial services, real estate/commercial property, pro audio/video and film. He started his career in 1989 as a local news reporter and editor, covering community news and politics in Long Island, N.Y. His background also includes an earlier stint at Supermarket News as center store editor and then financial editor in the mid-1990s. Russ holds a B.A. in journalism (minor in political science) from Hofstra University, where he also earned a certificate in digital/social media marketing in November 2016.

Russell Redman’s experience:

Supermarket News - Informa
Senior Editor 
April 2018 - present

Chain Drug Review/Mass Market Retailers - Racher Press
Desk/Online Editor 
Sept. 2008 - March 2018

CRN magazine - CMP Media
Managing Editor
May 2000 - June 2007

Bank Systems & Technology - Miller Freeman
Executive Editor/Managing Editor
Dec. 1996 - May 2000

Supermarket News - Fairchild Publications
Financial Editor/Associate Editor
April 1995 - Dec. 1996 

Shopping Centers Today Magazine - ICSC 
Desk Editor/Assistant Editor
Dec. 1992 - April 1995

Testa Communications
Assistant Editor/Contributing Editor (Music & Sound Retailer, Post, Producer, Sound & Communications and DJ Times magazines)
Jan. 1991 - Dec. 1992 

American Banker/Bond Buyer
Copy Editor
Oct. 1990 - Jan. 1991 

This Week newspaper - Chanry Communications
Reporter/Editor
May 1989 - July 1990

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