Albertsons and Google partner to optimize omnichannel shopping experience

According to the supermarketnews website, Albertsons, a well-known American grocery company, and search engine giant Google recently reached a broad partnership to help users create a more interactive and convenient shopping experience.

The two companies said Tuesday that after years of working together, Albertsons, which operates 2,253 grocery and drug stores in 34 states and the District of Columbia, has worked with multiple teams at Google to develop a range of solutions to make online and offline purchases more efficient.

This series of solutions includes integrating Google Search and Maps to improve the efficiency of consumers finding target products ; using Google Pay to simplify the checkout process ; and integrating Google Cloud Computing AI technologies such as Vision AI, Recommendations AI and Business Messages to build a grocery search engine with personalized recommendation capabilities.

Shoppers can now get store details and information about online grocery pickup and delivery by searching for Albertsons directly on the Google Mobile App ↓

Google and Albertsons reported that consumer searches for “curbside pickup” services in Google Maps surged 9,000% compared to March 2020 .

Additionally, over the past year, U.S. consumer searches for “groceries in stores” have grown 1,700%, searches for “food delivery near me” have grown 800%, searches for “best grocery delivery apps” have grown 600%, and searches for “how to buy groceries online” have grown 450%.

U.S. consumer search interest in “delivery” reached an all-time high in the U.S. in April 2020, while “grocery store” and “online grocery” peaked in May 2020.

The study also showed that U.S. consumers tend to search for specific types of food, with organic, vegan, bulk, Asian and Indian foods leading the way.

The surge in online grocery ordering during the pandemic has driven the development of an omnichannel shopping experience. Albertsons President and CEO Sankaran said at the Citi Retail Conference that every important function of the company is now enabled by data and technology, including promotions, ordering, production and automated distribution centers.

Currently, Albertsons has set up 1,400 curbside pickup points, and it is expected that by the end of this year, the company will have set up 1,800 curbside pickup points to achieve its delivery goal of delivering within 2 hours in all market segments .

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