Wakefern Food Corp. migrates to omnichannel loyalty platform
The nation’s largest retailer-owned cooperative is moving away from a POS-based loyalty approach.
Wakefern Food Corp. will deploy the Eagle Eye omnichannel loyalty and personalization platform in order to enable centralized loyalty management across all of its banners through a single, system, with no custom development or coding required. The company expects its new loyalty program to go live in mid-2026.
By partnering with Eagle Eye, Wakefern seeks to give its marketers the ability to design, launch and optimize loyalty and personalization initiatives quickly, while ensuring consistency and control across its entire retail network.
In replacing its legacy POS-led loyalty technology, Wakefern intends to “future-proof” its loyalty strategy with a platform that supports real-time execution of customer engagement tactics. This will enable Wakefern to deliver personalized interactions and promotions to each customer across channels.
As part of the implementation, Wakefern will leverage Eagle Eye’s AI-based personalization capabilities in an effort to deliver real-time, fully personalized promotions and gamified challenges at scale.
"Choosing Eagle Eye was an easy decision," said Darren Caudill, chief sales officer at Wakefern Food Corp. "Their technology is highly advanced, and their collaborative, consultative approach brings not only a strong platform but also seasoned retail experts who have implemented successful loyalty programs around the world. They’ll help us deliver a great customer experience while driving incremental sales and creating new opportunities for Wakefern to provide meaningful value to our CPG partners. It’s a win-win for our entire ecosystem — especially our customers."
Wakefern AI-enables its enterprise
Wakefern is involved in a number of technology implementations that include AI functionality. The company is among the first grocery retailers to deploy the new Afresh Fresh Buying solution, which leverages agentic AI to orchestrate forecasting, vendor selection, truck building, and issue resolution into one seamless, intelligent workflow for fresh buyers.
Wakefern also recently began leveraging AI to better target shoppers with individualized offers. The company is implementing the Birdzi customer intelligence platform and Visper AI-driven personalized campaign engine. By combining Visper with the Birdzi platform’s shopper analytics and forecasting and planning capabilities, Wakefern banners including ShopRite, Price Rite Marketplace and The Fresh Grocers seek to enhance and scale their personalized marketing campaigns.
Other examples of Wakefern utilizing advanced AI technologies include its continuing expansion of automated shelf-scanning robots across locations of its ShopRite banner.
[READ MORE: ShopRite parent expands inventory robots to more stores]
"We are very excited to partner with Wakefern and their members to help create a comprehensive loyalty engine that provides Wakefern with complete flexibility in offering personalized experiences that are right for their customers," said Jeff Baskin, chief revenue officer at Eagle Eye. "Our solution not only applies proven AI functionality, but allows Wakefern to implement and, most importantly, scale very quickly."
Wakefern is a member-owned cooperative comprised of independent companies that together operate more than 380 supermarkets across nine East Coast states under banners including ShopRite, Price Rite Marketplace, The Fresh Grocer, Fairway Market, Gourmet Garage, Di Bruno Bros. and Morton Williams.
