Blog – SAS Retail Services

retail stores

AI-Powered Solutions for Enhanced Shopping. Revolutionizing Retail?

In the ever-evolving landscape of the retail industry, innovative technologies are reshaping the way businesses operate, enhancing customer experiences, optimizing processes, and have the potential to tackle the ubiquitous out-of-stock issues at that shelf. This article in Progressive Grocery comments on how AI is innovating Category Management. Georges Mirza comments: “Computer vision is the critical technology that enables retailers to innovate and enhance their operations. Improving scalability, speed, and accuracy can boost customer satisfaction both in-store and online. Furthermore, it has the potential to streamline processes, reduce labor costs, and enhance the overall shopping experience by facilitating product identification and understanding shopper behavior.” 1. It’s our view that computer vision, coupled with artificial intelligence (AI) however, is not enough to create utopia at retail. Here’s why. It’s true that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming the grocery retail industry by offering innovative solutions to enhance various aspects of the shopping experience. With AI technology, retailers can also analyze vast amounts of data to gain valuable insights, make data-driven decisions, and optimize their operations. IMPROVING CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE THROUGH PERSONALIZATION AI enables grocery retailers to personalize the shopping experience for individual customers. By analyzing customer data, purchase history, and preferences, AI algorithms can

Anita Baldwinson August 11, 2023

#peoplepowered

We Are NextUp!

NextUp Summit 2023 took place in Chicago, September 26-28th. It truly was an outstanding event. 1600 “Boss” women and allies joined in learning, being inspired and uplifted. It’s here that Barbie was given a lifetime membership to NextUp. It’s here where we gained soundbites that challenged, evoked emotions, and built incredible future-forward hope for all attendees. We thank NextUp for outstanding programming, and for choosing speakers with powerful messages. And, we cannot forget the “She Shines” dance party; hundreds of women on the dance floor were a sight! You’ll see a snippet in the video below. This was the first time (but not the last) that Advantage Solutions, SAS Retail Services included, represented with multiple ambassador delegates. We were joined by our leaders, Dave Peacock, Pamela Morris-Thorton, and Kelli Hammersmith amongst others from the communications team. David’s talk on Wednesday morning embodied a strong message of the importance of relationships and made this ambassador proud to be a member of the enterprise. There was so much to take in. These were my top 8 takeaways: “A unicorn is that leader or person who is the first to… or the only one who… or one of the few who…So find a

Anita Baldwinson October 10, 2023

retail stores

New Items and Creating Variety at Retail From a Space Planner and Cook

Here in the space management department, everything we do is for bettering the customer profits while making sure any changes made to stores will be a smooth and organized process for our merchandisers and ultimately, the customers that shop with our customers. Those objectives are combined with making the aisles look uniform and organized visually. As a customer of our grocery retail customer myself, I’m always excited to see what we can do and how we help them stay a thriving business that I can continue to enjoy as a consumer as well. As someone who loves to cook, I’m always looking for new and exciting products to try and recipes to challenge my capabilities. As an analyst that provides services to our grocery company customers, it’s very intriguing to see what products will be coming into our stores before others do. There are a few ways I get to see these changes coming, one is through our new item cut-in projects, and two, through our reset processes. As we work on a new item cut-in, we are given a list of new items to put into the stores. Sometimes new items are a new flavor of something that is

Anita Baldwinson July 11, 2023

SAS WOMEN ARE TOPS IN GROCERY

What has fascinated me about this industry all the years that I have been a part of it, is the incredible volume of movement that goes on behind the scenes to get that can, that book, or that box onto the sales floor at retail. To ensure that happens every single day, there are many people that pull together to make it possible. Men and women who work in backrooms, in back offices, and on the floor during the day and overnight, every night. Our people are doing the work of redesigning, resetting, rehauling, and rejuvenating retail environments. In the last few years, all this work at grocery was (and is) considered essential to serving the communities and families. These people, getting it done, are truly the unsung heroes in the grocery industry. So, when Progressive Grocer, an industry institution, commits to spotlighting women leaders in the grocery industry year after year, we are not only happy to participate but dive into the process fully. Top Women in Grocery or more affectionately known by its acronym, TWIG, is in its 17th year of celebrating Women in Grocery!: “The Top Women in Grocery program began more than 17 years ago as

Anita Baldwinson June 15, 2023

Celebrating Our Associates Daily

Celebrate today, yes, but…Today is National Associate Appreciation Day, but every day in our people-powered organization we’re grateful for everything our Associates make #possible at retail. Their help at retail serves communities and families and we couldn’t be more proud of them and the work they do. It is difficult sometimes to find the time. It isn’t always easy to take the time to show appreciation. Ensuring our clients’ projects are executed expertly in the labor environment we’re experiencing today creates a climate that some of our team may not feel they have the time to stop and celebrate. They are too busy getting that reset or remodel completed, or too busy moving the client’s product from point A to point B. There’s a solid business case for showing recognition We all know that being recognized helps the Associate experience. As a company, we’re working hard to integrate recognition (and our people-powered positive culture) even more into the DNA at SAS Retail Services. Without an inventory of widgets to sell, it’s only through the amazing efforts and quality execution of projects by our Associates, that we are a viable business today. Focusing on the individual, recognizing their efforts, making them

Anita Baldwinson March 3, 2023

retail stores

Consumption Pattern Changes Drive Change at Retail

When I look at the headlines of what’s happening at retail, it looks like this year, like most, will not be immune to change. While inflation is softening (finally), consumers will continue to make shifts in order to best take care of their families and finances. “Asked how they were dealing with the higher prices, 57% of respondents said that they were buying less food, 52% said that they were buying less expensive store brands, and 48% said that they were buying less expensive national brands. Thirty-seven percent of respondents said that they were shopping at less expensive grocery stores”.1 Our collective experience over the last few years created trends The last few years have also given rise to new routines and new consumption patterns. In a recent article, “Where are Consumers Heads – and Wallets – This Year?” two trends jumped out that highlighted opportunities at retail: “With consumers refocusing their priorities during a stress-filled decade, Euromonitor emphasized the emerging importance of short-term buying approaches that often include surprise-and-delight items. Euromonitor’s experts recommended that businesses create campaigns targeting special occasions and offer instant gratifications that can still fit within budget constraints.”2 “The return to regular routines continues as consumers

Anita Baldwinson January 23, 2023

AI-Powered Solutions for Enhanced Shopping. Revolutionizing Retail?

We Are NextUp!

New Items and Creating Variety at Retail From a Space Planner and Cook

SAS WOMEN ARE TOPS IN GROCERY

Celebrating Our Associates Daily

Consumption Pattern Changes Drive Change at Retail

Need help? Call our award-winning support team at 1-888-649-1075

Contact

Solutions

solutions

Employment