Today’s grocers must offer an ecommerce option. Store.ai, an Israeli retail-tech company, helps them create a digital experience that mimics the real thing.
Supermarkets sometimes have packers at checkout lines to help bag groceries. Today, markets more urgently need pickers – people who comb the aisles for items ordered online.
Every step in the food ecommerce process is complex, from building and managing a user-friendly website that reflects constantly changing prices and inventory, to personalizing special offers, fulfilling orders accurately, and restocking shelves.
“Ecommerce for groceries is very different than for apparel and consumer electronics,” says Orlee Tal, CEO of Israeli retail-tech company Stor.ai.
As the company’s name suggests, it uses artificial intelligence (AI) in creating and supporting food retailers’ end-to-end online operations.
Store.ai’s Picker-App customizes and maps in-store grocery fulfillment. Advanced outbound marketing tools communicate with customers in a targeted way to encourage trying the service and returning again and again.
Store.ai founder Yossi Rabinovitz — a Lubavitch Hassid and serial entrepreneur – believed in the potential of online grocery shopping long before it caught on with the public, says Tal.
Shoppers were reluctant to order food, especially produce and baked goods, without seeing, smelling, or touching. Grocers were reluctant to add pickers and deliverers to their payroll.
“Covid changed everything,” Tal says. “Now online orders account for 10 percent of overall [grocery] sales, and analysts say it will double in three to four years. So the online part of their business is essential for their survival and there’s no room for bad decisions.”