Halla and Local Express Introduce Food Discovery and Inspiration to the Customer Experience Giving Grocers an Edge Online

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 15, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Halla, a taste intelligence company that enables grocers to predict the personal preferences of their shoppers in real time, and Local Express, an eCommerce platform that sets grocers up with digital storefronts from order entry to delivery, today announced a partnership that will offer grocers an enhanced digital shopping experience for their customers, including food discovery and inspiration that's tailored to each online shopper. These new features have proven to increase basket size and drive brand loyalty across regional and national grocery retailers. Halla's capabilities are set to be available among the 150+ grocers Local Express currently works with by the end of the year.

While online grocery sales have been growing and predicted to continue, the Coronavirus pandemic has caused an unprecedented surge that will likely continue even after the pandemic ends. Fabric's 2020 Report: The Impact of COVID-19 on Online Grocery found 52% of U.S. consumers had shopped for groceries online recently because of the COVID-19 pandemic and 20% were first-time shoppers. Significantly, respondents also reported that they expect to keep up over 50% of their online shopping increase even after the pandemic ends.

Now that the stakes are high with online grocery sales, retailers are in need of technology that can deliver frictionless omnichannel experiences that will save time for consumers shopping online and keep them coming back.

In July 2018, Halla launched its Taste Intelligence engine, an AI-powered platform that leverages machine learning to deploy real-time food recommendations based on personal taste, dietary preference, etc. across grocers' digital shopping environments. With the ability to make more accurate recommendations, Halla's engine is able to generate 29% more revenue than one of the world's largest retailer's in-house AI solutions. This capability has introduced a new and critical component to the online grocery experience.

"We know it takes on average three trips to create a loyal digital grocery shopper," said Spencer Price, CEO and Co-Founder of Halla. "For grocers to captivate their customers' attention and compete with all the other retailers, setting up a digital storefront is not enough. They need to create the ultimate shopping experience by making every shopper feel like they're in a grocery store that was designed just for them. Right now, Local Express and Halla have created the only eCommerce solution that is able to make that happen for any size grocery retailer."

Grocers have spent years perfecting the in-store experience to drive discovery and inspiration and now Halla and Local Express are bringing that online. Unlike any other grocery eCommerce platform, Halla and Local Express are offering food discovery and inspiration by tailoring each shopping trip to the individual's taste, dietary preferences, sensitives, households, pantry state, etc. as soon as they enter the site to when they check out.

How does it work?
Halla's AI-powered, Taste Intelligence is embedded seamlessly via API into the back-end of the Local Express eCommerce platform. Local Express customers are then able to opt-in to turn Halla on, after providing the necessary data to bring the personalized discovery to each grocery shopper.

Beyond tailoring shoppers' experiences based on what they prefer, this partnership will also help grocers create private label promotions and coupons with incredibly accurate precision in real-time to make up for the in-store impulse purchases.

"We are thrilled to be introducing Halla's industry leading level of personalization to our grocery retail partners to give them a tremendous edge against big box retailers that have been working on this for years," said Tigran Zograbyan, Co-Founder of Local Express. "This is an incredible opportunity for grocery retailers as they look to push digital transformation with an omnichannel focus and for those looking for a solution that allows them to continue to own the entire customer experience and build a loyal customer base well into the future."

For more information or to set up a demo visit http://www.halla.io and http://www.localexpress.io.

About Halla

Halla is a taste intelligence company that enables grocers to predict the personal preferences of their shoppers, all in real time. Halla's Taste Intelligence engine uses Natural Language Processing and statistical Machine Learning to deploy real-time recommendations based on personal taste, dietary preference, etc. across grocers' digital shopping environments. The accuracy of Halla's recommendations leads to significant increases in basket size, margin, customer loyalty and shopper satisfaction. Halla works with some of the largest grocery retailers in the world and participated in Food-X, the leading food innovation accelerator, as well as Endless Frontier Labs. Check out our explainer video here or request a demo of Halla's Taste intelligence engine at Halla.io.

About Local Express
Local Express is a fully customizable eCommerce platform that allows independent grocery retailers to build digital storefronts from order entry to multiple delivery options using the latest technology. The platform is 100% white labeled and offers seamless integration for all digital environments. Local Express is designed to drive retailers' operational requirements and generate increasingly large customer bases and basket sizes, while driving down the costs and time to fulfill orders with inherent technological advantages and integrations. Ultimately, Local Express' goal is to provide grocery retailers with the right data to make meaningful decisions that drive sales and allow them to compete with their much larger competitors. More information is available at http://www.localexpress.io.

SOURCE Halla

Related Links

https://www.halla.io/