Digimarc Corp. is collaborating with Walmart to improve the management of packaged fresh foods. The program is intended to reduce fresh food waste and provide everyday lowest prices by automating the markdown process.
“We are working closely with Digimarc to innovate and apply new technologies that will aim to reduce waste, help improve our overall store operations and improve customer experience,” said John Crecelius, SVP of central operations at Bentonville, Arkansas-based Walmart. “As we apply this new technology to our fresh processes, our goal is to realize new customer benefits while accelerating our commitment to reduce waste.”
The scope of the companies’ work together on improving efficiency and accuracy of checkout has been expanded through technology development and business process engineering to include waste reduction by automating many aspects of packaged fresh food inventory management.
Fresh product labels can be crinkled, smudged, wrapped around edges, or fraudulently altered, contributing to product shrinkage, lower inventory accuracy, and suboptimal customer experiences. The Digimarc Barcode for Fresh Product Labels makes scanning more reliable, simplifies operations, improves inventory accuracy and provides a better customer experience.
“This program coalesces efforts to benefit society with Walmart’s dedication to everyday low prices,” said Digimarc CEO Bruce Davis. “We look forward to helping Walmart reduce food waste and save money for consumers through the use of this program.”
Based in Beaverton, Oregon, Digimarc offers its patented Intuitive Computing Platform (ICP) and innovative and comprehensive automatic recognition technologies to simplify search, and transform information discovery through unparalleled reliability, efficiency and security. The company has a global patent portfolio that includes more than 1,100 granted and pending patents. These innovations include state-of-the-art identification technology, Digimarc Barcode, as well as Digimarc Discover software for barcode scanning, image recognition and more.
