Albertsons streamlines perishables order management
Albertsons Companies is connecting all suppliers and stakeholders across its perishable goods supply chain.
The grocery conglomerate is rolling out the Procurant One technology platform for purchasing and order management across its banners, including Albertsons, Safeway, Jewel-Osco, Acme, United Supermarkets, and Vons. Procurant One is a web-based buying application designed to improve the speed, efficiency, and reliability of order management in the perishables category.
Albertsons is enhancing its ability to manage purchasing and orders across its perishables supply chain as the company increases omnichannel customer access to products. Since 2019, the company has been piloting “micro-fulfillment” centers supported by a hyperlocal fulfillment solution from Takeoff Technologies. Located inside an existing store, micro-fulfillment centers typically hold about 15,000 to 18,000 of the local market’s most popular products.
The centers use robotic technology to fulfill e-commerce orders and provide real-time information about inventory. By placing a micro-fulfillment center in an existing store close to customers, Albertsons hopes to be able to carry a diverse and locally relevant selection of products.
And just in the past two months, Albertsons has rolled out a number of new omnichannel services designed to provide customers more immediate connection to products. These include rolling out a subscription delivery service called FreshPass, as well as a free deals & delivery app. The company also expanded upon its proprietary in-store pickup service in a new partnership with on-demand delivery platform Instacart, and collaborated with the Firework short-form video platform in a multi-fold initiative. Albertsons will use Firework to deploy short video content and cooking experiences on its various banner websites, and expand offerings and experiences in 2022.
Furthermore, the company is entering a new multi-year agreement with Pinterest to enable its customers to discover and shop food items via the visually-oriented social platform.
“Perishable goods are critical to our success, and the complexity of our business and scale of operations require systems that are aligned with the demands of a modern, fast-moving supply chain,” said Rich Mendonsa, VP of produce and floral procurement at Albertsons Companies. “From day one, Procurant has been a great partner and has worked closely with our team to bring this new system online, smoothly and in record time.”
“This is a big day for Procurant and a great day for Albertsons Companies and their network of produce and floral suppliers,” said Eric Peters, CEO, Procurant. “From the very first conversation, we knew we had a shared objective to modernize and improve the perishables buying process. I’m proud of the work we’ve done to get them live and transacting in record time, and to help bring a modern digital procurement platform to one of the industry’s largest and most influential retailers.”
Albertsons Cos. operates stores across 34 states and the District of Columbia with more than 20 banners including Albertsons, Safeway, Vons, Jewel-Osco, Shaw's, Acme, Tom Thumb, Randalls, United Supermarkets, Pavilions, Star Market, Haggen, Carrs, Kings Food Markets, and Balducci's Food Lovers Market.