NEW YORK — Associated Food Stores and CB4 announce partnership to improve in-store customer experience with artificial intelligence.
Today Associated Food Stores (AFS) joined the growing list of grocers whose store managers are using CB4’s technology in their stores.
CB4’s patented artificial intelligence technology uses pre-existing POS data to identify when physical issues in a store are holding back sales and hurting the customer experience. These issues include products that aren’t easily visible, ticketing issues, and out of stocks.
As late as the 1990s, grocery stores carried 7,000 items. Today, that number has ballooned to an average of 40,000. With that number of items, even if 99% of a supermarket is perfect, that leaves 400 potential problems for a store manager to deal with.
It’s impossible to fix every one of those problems. By accurately projecting how much sales will increase after fixing an issue, CB4 helps store managers identify the exact SKUs in their stores that need the most attention and guides them on how to fix potential issues. Because the software requires no in-store hardware or external data sources, implementation and onboarding can be done in a few days.
AFS was founded in 1940 by Donald P. Lloyd and 34 independent grocers determined to thrive in the face of stiff competition from national chains, low margins, and rising wholesale prices. During an era of consolidation, where regional chains and independents have been swallowed up by national chains, AFS grew to 400 strong. They did this by emphasizing exceptional, personal service and high-quality products.
“What really caught my attention was the ease of implementation,” said Wade Judd, CIO of AFS. “We were able to roll out some pretty sophisticated technology, train our store managers, and start reaping the benefits in weeks rather than months. It was one of the simplest implementations that our team has been involved with.”
“The founding members of AFS were faced with a tough situation and responded by creating an innovative business model centered on cooperation and strength in numbers,” said Yoni Benshaul, CEO of CB4. “We’re happy to join forces with them and continuing to build on their established foundation of customer-focused excellence.”
About CB4
CB4 provides a patented software solution for brick and mortar retailers that improves customer experience and net new sales by up to 2% using simple sales data. The software requires no hardware installation and most customers are up and running in a single day. With offices in New York, Tel Aviv, and London, CB4 is a proud partner of Sequoia Capital. To learn more about our solution, please visit: https://cb4.com/demo/ or email hello@cb4.com.
