Last updated on February 15th, 2017 at 01:53 pm
Jerome, Idaho-based Ridley’s Family Markets, which operates nearly three-dozen stores in Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming, has deployed Digital Foodie’s on-demand platform.
The new service will include branded websites and mobile applications that provide personalized shopping experiences for customers across the retailer’s Mountain West footprint. Ridley’s also will put Digital Foodie’s picking and fulfillment tools into effect to optimize the store pick-up and home delivery processes. In addition, Ridley’s and Digital Foodie are partnering to create what they call “compelling digital experiences” for Ridley’s customers and say they will work closely together on marketing initiatives and training programs on the new service to achieve a high level of consumer adoption.
“At Ridley’s, we strive to be on the forefront of grocery innovation, with our Advantage Card for loyal customers as an example of how we extend offers inside the store as well as to serve the broader community,” said Mark Ridley, director of operations at Ridley’s. “With the Digital Foodie platform, we stay in control of our on-the-go customers’ experience as we add on-demand grocery as another service that makes shopping at Ridley’s even more convenient and compelling. The Digital Foodie team has made it very easy and fast to map out the evolution to digital grocery.”
According to a press release announcing the partnership: In the digital era the speed of which services are launched and adapted is fast. That was certainly true when massive snowstorm caused the roof of the Ridley’s grocery store in Weiser, Idaho, to collapse. Ridley’s and Digital Foodie’s teams sprung to action quickly and added the service area for the store to the previously planned delivery area for the project and launched the delivery service two days after the accident.
“When the weather challenged us, we were able to act quickly to minimize the disruption to our customers and, in fact, the platform made it straightforward to adapt our strategy to cover the affected area and continue business in Weiser,” said Justin Merrill, director of online sales for Ridley’s Family Markets.
Ridley’s customers are able to create baskets and place orders online or through their mobile devices. Customers can choose the most convenient pickup or delivery time for them, and they are notified when the order is close to being delivered or if the status of the order changes.
“The grocery retail industry has been undergoing a major transformation from brick and mortar to online during recent years,” said Digital Foodie CEO Kalle Koutajoki. “Independent retailers face fierce competition and, with limited resources, creating an online service that is better than the new offerings from Walmart, Amazon and large grocery chains is not easy. We have more than half a decade of experience in running online grocery businesses in the most competitive digital grocery market in the world. We have created the world’s only, fully behaviorally personalized online grocery platform. Through the Digital Foodie cloud platform, we are confident that family grocers and independent retailers can compete with anyone to increase their reach and store sales. We are excited to work with Ridley’s Family Markets and enable a true connected commerce.”
