Dive Brief:
- Jacksons Food Stores has partnered with Blue Yonder, a digital supply chain and omnichannel fulfillment company, to update its space and category management capabilities, according to a Tuesday press release.
- The convenience retailer will use Scottsdale, Arizona-based Blue Yonder’s category management software as a service (SaaS) solution across its footprint to help it develop store layouts, product mixes and more, down to the individual store level.
- Jackson’s joins a number of c-stores looking to use technology to innovate and improve the customer experience. Casey’s recently expanded a pilot of automated ordering technology to all its stores, while Circle K has boosted efficiency with advanced self-checkout tech.
Dive Insight:
Jacksons will use the Blue Yonder solution to digitize its category management process. This will give it more flexibility to make changes or implement innovations, reduce the chance of out-of-stock items and help it go from planning to in-store execution faster through the use of advanced analytics.
“Jacksons needed a category management solution that could adjust as customer preference and localized demand changes,” said Vince Beacom, senior vice president of retail for Blue Yonder, adding that with the SaaS, the retailer “can build and maintain store-specific planograms to drive more localized assortment and efficient execution, resulting in increased sales.”
Jacksons can use the analytics data to not only plan the layout for each store individually, but also to tailor the product mix and placement to each of those locations. Jacksons offers about 5,000 SKUs in its stores, including a range of private label items and in-house baked goods.
“This solution will allow us to meet the needs of each of our stores, serving the unique needs of each of our communities,” said Cory Jackson, president of Jacksons.
The project will be implemented by supply chain & retail planning company Plantensive.
Jacksons’ automation of its supply chain and category management tasks comes about five months after the company expanded its technology in a different direction by adding Bitcoin Depot kiosks for purchasing crypto to 80 of its stores.
Family owned, Meridian, Idaho-based Jacksons currently operates more than 300 stores in Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, California, and Utah under two brands — Jacksons Food Stores and ExtraMile by Jacksons Convenience Store.
