Ahold Partners with RangeMe for Product Discovery
Today Ahold USA, parent company of Stop & Shop New England, Stop & Shop New York Metro, Giant Landover, Giant Carlisle and online grocery Peapod, announced a partnership with product discovery platform RangeMe. Ahold will use RangeMe for both inbound submissions as well as to scale its product discovery efforts.
RangeMe allows retailers, such as Ahold stores, to streamline the product discovery process and find new products based on specific criteria such as geographic location, margin, price, certifications and more.
“Our goal is to develop more mutually beneficial and successful partnerships with small and diverse suppliers,” Nick Bertram, senior vice president of merchandising strategy & support, Ahold USA said in a press release. “This partnership with RangeMe reinforces our commitment to accomplish this at scale while providing our division customers with amazing products at competitive costs.”
Currently RangeMe is used as a product discovery platform for other grocery retailers including Whole Foods Market, Target, South Eastern Grocers (Winn Dixie, Harvey’s and Bi-Lo), Jet.com, 7-Eleven and Sam’s Club’s regional buying teams. The company raised $4 million in seed funding in the first half of 2016.
In December at its “Capital Markets Day,” Ahold parent company Ahold Delhaize announced its “better together” strategy. Part of this plan, the company said, included focusing on having fresh food through local sourcing as well as best in class pricing for some of its cost-focused retail brands. RangeMe’s product sourcing platform should help with these goals as it not only allows retailers to find unique, local products but also products that fit within strict price parameters.
At Project NOSH LA 2016, Jackson sat down with two retail buyers, Monica Coyle of Whole Foods Market and Rich Gillmore of Gelsons to discuss what trends are resonating with buyers on the platform and how brands can become “retail ready” for success once on shelves.
To view the full discussion with Jackson, Coyle and Gillmore, check out the video below.
