East of England Co-op claims to have stopped 1.8 million meals from reaching landfill last year, thanks to its partnership with markdown tech provider Retail Insight.
The society, which runs 120 food stores, said the amount equated to preventing 4,880 tonnes of CO2 emissions from being emitted.
The technology also improved sell-through rates by 13%, helping East of England Co-op sell a claimed 6.9 million items that would have otherwise been wasted, including 1.9 million units of fruit & vegetables.
Retail Insight’s AI-powered software sets markdown prices for products nearing expiry, by analysing a wide range of data points including product type and seasonality. The technology calculates the optimal discount price and the timing it should be marked down, with the aim of reducing waste and maximising sell-through.
Retail Insight has also worked with the retailer to develop an integration between its solution and electronic shelf labels supplied by Pricer for East of England Co-op.
“We want to use technology to improve the lives of our colleagues, our customers, our members and the community,” said East of England Co-op chief retail officer Sam Winter.
“Retail Insight’s WasteInsight solution is a great example of exactly how we can do that. We listened to feedback and have reduced manual effort and frustration for colleagues in-store, ensuring we can give great deals on RTC products to our customers, and importantly put the society on a trajectory to meet our target to reduce food waste to 0% by 2030.”
Retail Insight VP customer success EMEA Kieran O’Brien said: “The ESL integrations we’ve delivered for East of England Co-op have drastically reduced the amount of time store associates spend on RTC markdowns. And, because our platform leverages foundational retail data, major operational changes could be implemented without the need for significant capex or store disruption and scaled quickly to accelerate ROI.”
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