Whole Foods gets whole picture of its business

Whole Foods Market, Inc. is teaming up with a well-known analytics provider to obtain a deeper understanding of its assortment and customer base.



The specialty grocery chain has selected Nielsen as its primary U.S. analytics provider for POS data, consumer insights and industry metrics. Nielsen is working with the company to collaboratively create a customized natural and organic product hierarchy that will provide a comprehensive view of Whole Foods Market's product categories, including ingredient-level attributes.



In addition to allowing the company and its supplier partners to make faster and more informed data-based decisions to drive growth, the data will yield a deeper understanding of customer preferences. With this deeper understanding of our customers, Whole Foods Market and its supplier partners will gain an edge in new product development. The retailer thus hopes to establish itself as a trend leader in quality and differentiated product assortments.



Nielsen was chosen for its comprehensive understanding of Whole Foods Market's retail universe and coverage across categories, channels and marketing media. In addition to developing the customized hierarchy, Nielsen will provide measurement and marketing analytics for all U.S. Whole Foods Market stores.



"Whole Foods Market has long been a great retail artist," said Don Clark, Whole Foods Market's global VP of procurement, non-perishables. "This partnership allows us to better blend the art and science of food retail, helping us compete more effectively in a very dynamic environment."



Unlike some other grocery retailers, Whole Foods competes on the quality and variety of its product, rather than price. That makes it even more critical for the retailer to have a deep understanding of the nature of the goods it sells, as well as a detailed view of customer preferences. By partnering with Nielsen, the company will be better able to stay on top of changing trends, emerging trends and consumer habits within the natural and organic grocery space.