Convenience retailer, Co-op and its wholesale subsidiary, Nisa, have joined forces with leading customer loyalty specialist, IRI along with their wholesale arm, SalesOut to launch Hive – a cutting-edge new insights portal which will enable even closer collaboration between buyers and suppliers.
The online platform, which is set to be the most comprehensive of its kind in Europe, integrates multiple data sets to provide intelligence across a variety of sectors including category sales performance (EPoS and shipment data), ranging, supply chain, pricing and customer behaviour. It will encompass activity across the Co-op’s 2,500 UK stores along with Nisa’s 2,500 local, independently owned outlets.
Using IRI’s ‘Liquid Data’ technology, Hive will enable Co-op and Nisa suppliers to gain much needed clear insights into category, brands and shoppers quickly and easily, ensuring that decisions are made with customers and members top of mind. Insight into the latest trends, promotional effectiveness and pricing strategies will deliver genuine growth for suppliers and ultimately a better customer experience for shoppers.
Michael Fletcher, Co-op Food’s Chief Commercial Officer, said:
[dt_quote type="blockquote" font_size="big" animation="none" background="plain"]“We’re very excited to be launching Hive – Co-op stores serve a wide range of diverse communities across the UK and it’s essential that we harness the power of our collective data more effectively, particularly in times of unprecedented consumer behaviour when the Convenience channel continues to grow in importance for shoppers.
We were looking for a partner to help us derive even greater insights across both retail and wholesale to power the collective business forward for suppliers and members; IRI were the clear choice. The teams at IRI and SalesOut have a proven ability to manage and deliver this against very complex customer and sales information and we’re delighted to be forging a new strategic partnership with them.”[/dt_quote]
John McNeill, Nisa’s Chief Operating Officer, said: “Supplier collaboration on such a grand scale will ultimately deliver extremely sophisticated insight into our wholesale operation and we’re very pleased to be able to work with IRI to bring Hive to life.”
Jaime Silvester, Retail Director at IRI, commented: “We are very excited to be embarking on this journey with Co-op and Nisa. IRI’s unique and proven Liquid Data technology combined with our skills and experience delivering customer insight to the UK Retail market will provide them both with the ability to make faster, better decisions that drive value for the customer.”
Kirsty Harris Clarke, Managing Director of SalesOut added: “The power of IRI’s technology and customer loyalty expertise combined with our wholesale experience and insights capability will give Co-Op, Nisa and their suppliers the ability to make quicker and better decisions that ultimately drive value for customers and consumers. We are really delighted to partner with Co-op and Nisa."
Hive goes live on 1st July and is available to all Co-op and Nisa suppliers.
