Structured Process:
Shoprite uses a structured process everyday in their sales process. This process’ main goal is to provide customers with a familiar experience to a normal grocery store. The employees are tasked with goals such as to; restock the shelves for customers, provide customer service, and to check out the customers goods either by AI (self-checkout) or manually on a register. The employees structured business process includes all three of these to make sure the customers have all of their needs fulfilled whether it is by having products on the shelves or to check out each customer by use of the register or a self checkout machine. The use of this system alone upgrades efficiency, boosting other areas of the store such as the quality and timeliness of the checkout system. Along with being responsible for checking out customers the employees are responsible for any problems the store may incur in their area as well as keeping the store and their own workplaces as clean as possible.
Self Check-out Kiosks:
Shoprite’s Structured Process overall cannot see too many major improvements since being a traditional grocery store. But besides that the major issue i saw while working there is the over reliance on supervisors during checkout. If the cashiers need a potential “override” on something whether it is coupons, item not scanning, or there is a barcode issue it goes through the supervisor, if it is not done quickly the lines on the register will begin to increase. If there is less of a reliance on supervisors there can be an increase in productivity. Another improvement that my previous shoprite is developing is the use of more self checkouts, with an increase in self checkouts there can be a growth in efficiency and can raise profits because of less of a need for cashiers on their payroll.
A view of the Shoprite POS system:
Dynamic Process:
After viewing Shoprite’s social media there is not enough follower engagement, a big opportunity for shoprite to capture the attention of the younger generation is to offer potentially polls or other ways to keep the customers interacting with the store. Another way for this to happen is to have better captions offering a response to their posts, this according to the instagram algorithm improves the likelihood of posts entering a viewers “For You” page. Another way Shoprite can improve their customer engagement is by offering polls on potential items to add to the store or potential sales that can be active during the week. The polls can bring a better idea of what customers want in the store as well as what they want on sale to keep them coming in the stores. After reviewing their instagram page Shoprite receives less than 20 likes on posts often while having 54 thousand followers, I feel if shoprites marketing on social media was more effective than it could increase daily profits with more people entering the stores.
Shoprite's Instagram page:
Shoprite uses instagram marketing as a dynamic process which updates daily and weekly. This process keeps customers up to date on the latest promotions and discounts happening in its store. With the use of marketing on instagram some products fly right off the shelves as soon as the new coupons hit the paper with the most popular being watermelon and corn sales. This advertising approach proves time and time again to be beneficial and increase sales tremendously for the week. With the use of instagram as a marketing process it allows customers to DM the company or comment on posts asking questions regarding the latest sales.
Shoprite's Facebook page:
Social Media Plan:
When considering social media, Shoprite primarily utilizes both Instagram and Facebook. Through these platforms, Shoprite is able to leverage its presence in order to both attract and retain followers.
The structure of a social media plan:
Shoprite’s social media plan consist of:
Define Your Goals - To create a highly personal and immersive digital experience.
Although Shoprite has many goals for its social media presence, it primarily focuses on creating a highly personal and immersive digital experience for followers. It is able to attain this by posting relative content that incorporates followers into the experience. This immersion can occur from a plethora of experiences from the cooking demonstrations to the featured content.
Identify Success Metrics - Shoprites main success metric can be seen through customer engagement and follow through.
Although Shoprite has many measures of success, they put emphasis on customer engagement and follow through. This metric is of great importance to Shoprite because it helps them to quantitatively measure the amount of followers that are actively engaging with the company, and actually acting on the content. Let's take one of Shoprites recipe posts for example. While scrolling through their social media page, followers will have the choice to either scroll past or interact with the recipe post. Any follower that interacts with the post will be recorded as a customer who engaged with the post. Furthermore, Shoprite can measure the follow through of the recipe post by the number of customers who actually went on to purchase the recipes ingredients.
Identify Target Audience - Shoprites target audience on social media is homemakers aged 25 to 45.
Although many people shop at the Shoprite, their target social media audience consists of homemakers aged 25 to 45. The reason is because families and individuals in this age group tend to do a good amount of home cooking and are willing to try new recipes given instruction. In addition, this age group further makes heavy use of social media, which makes them a prime target for Shoprite.
Define Your Value - By providing customers with recipes, promotions, and cooking demonstrations all from the convenience of their laptop or smartphone.
Shoprites social media platforms provide much value to users. One form of value can be seen through the cooking demonstrations that Shoprite shares with their followers. Through these demonstrations, viewers are able to watch a professional cook prepare, make, and serve the meal right from the comfort of their home. In addition to providing this demonstration, Shoprite further provides the recipe for the meal and written out instructions for easy reference.
An example of a promotion:
Make Personal Connections - Shoprite is able to achieve this by acknowledging employees and featuring patrons on their social media pages.
Through their social media, Shoprite is able to make personal connections with both their employees and customers. They first make this personal connection with their employees by spotlighting them on the company's social media page when they go above and beyond and command recognition. They are also able to attain this personal connection with customers by featuring their cooked creations on the company's social media page.
An example of an employee spotlight:
Gather and Analyze Data - Shoprite achieves this with their use of Facebook insights and Instagram analytics.
Data is one of the most important assets that any organization can have. Shoprite is able to gather social media data directly through their platforms. With Facebook they have Facebook insights, and with Instagram they have Instagram analytics. In addition to storing data, these tools further analyze and report this data in a visually appealing way to Shoprites social media team.
An example of a cooking demonstration:
The Information Systems Used by Shoprite:
Structured Information System:
For the structured process of sales, Shoprite makes use of the CB4-AI information system. CB4-AI, which is utilized by many other retail companies such as Levi’s and Quickcheck, provides Shoprite with a one-stop sales management solution. CB4-AI is an inter-enterprise system that operates within the cloud. By being an inter-enterprise system, Shoprite is able to connect and work in collaboration with their partners. This was a huge step up from their previous enterprise system that created many silos and inefficiencies for both Shoprite and their partners. How CB4 works is that when an item is scanned, either for return or purchase within Shoprite, that information is immediately transacted into CB4’s cloud database. While in the cloud, the data is both organized and analyzed by preexisting software and artificial intelligence. Through the data’s analysis, artificial intelligence is able to pick up on trends and patterns that can be occurring either at specific locations or across the conglomerate as a whole. For instance, one of the patterns that individual locations pay much attention to is how their sales of particular products match up to that of other nearby locations. By knowing this pattern, store managers are able to see when their store is underselling a particular item, which then empowers them to further investigate and see why the product is underselling. According to CB4, the most common reason for an undersold product is because the product is not visible to the consumer. This invisibility can be from the fact that the item was left in the store room, or because the pallet made it to the aisle, but was never unloaded and stocked on the shelfs. Nevertheless, such constraints constrain sales and harm the company's bottom line. In addition to finding patterns and trends, CB4 also aids Shoprite when it comes to inventory management. Because all sales and inventory information is maintained within the cloud, store managers will be aware of stock levels at any period of time. Although managers could request autonomy when placing new orders, most opt to use CB4’s automatic ordering system that orders new products when inventory drops to a certain level. Overall, CB4-AI provides great utility and functionality to Shoprite as it enables them to achieve their organizational needs and goals.
A preview of CB4-AI metrics:
Information regarding the functionality if CB4-AI:
Dynamic Information System:
Considering Shoprites dynamic process which can be seen through their social media presence, some of the major information systems that they use are Facebook and Instagram. Through these platforms, Shoprite pays particular attention to their analytical tools which consist of Facebook insights and Instagram analytics, respectively. With these tools, Shoprite is able to monitor their reach, impressions, and interactions with social media users. On top of this, these tools further provide Shoprite with an analytical dashboard that generates relevant charts, tables, and graphs, which enables Shoprite to pick up on trends and better interpret the data. Even though Shoprite does indeed make use of these statistics, it is important to note that Shoprite outsources much of their social media marketing to Huge Brooklyn, a leader in the marketing industry. Huge Brooklyn is based out of, you guessed it Brooklyn, and has serviced many large corporations such as McDonalds and Gucci to name a few. Huge Brooklyn maintains a very creative and contemporary approach, which has greatly benefited Shoprite. Some of this creativity can be seen through the recipes, cooking demonstrations, and promotional content that Shoprite posts on their social media handles. As Shoprite understands that cooking is not the easiest of tasks, they try to make this chore much easier for consumers, all while promoting their brand. Overall, Shoprite has made great use of their social media platforms, by incorporating unique contents and by monitoring user analytics.
A preview of Instagram Analytics:
Shoprite's marketing partner, Huge Brooklyn:
Components of the Information System:
- Hardware: shoprite uses different hardware systems in the stores including desktop, POS computers, laptop computers, receipt printers, and in store scanners.
One of Shoprites compuer/ hardware systems:
- Software: Shoprite uses CB4 AI to manage its POS and identify trends or patterns to find ways to improve sales. Also, This software tells you what store is selling more or less of specific products.
- Cloud Computing Database: CB4 AI is the cloud computing database that provides Shoprite with real time data through an online portal database that encourages collaboration among partners. This cloud computing database helps Shoprite understand the exact amount of products needed in the store to avoid having more or less inventory. All the data in this database is used to identify issues or concerns in the store in regards to the decrease in sales for a specific product.
The cloud:
- People: shoprite employs some IS managers but it primarily relies on outsourced vendors, such as CB4 AI for its IT needs.
- Security: ShopRite and its parent company, Wakefern Food Corporation, paid $235,000 after two supermarkets threw away electronic devices exposing thousands of customers' medical information. After this accident, Wakefern provides its members a way to properly dispose of electronic devices that include customer information.
Virtual security:
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