{"id":15067,"date":"2025-07-17T00:34:07","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T00:34:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/15067\/"},"modified":"2025-07-17T00:34:07","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T00:34:07","slug":"new-ai-and-interactive-features-boost-digital-sales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/15067\/","title":{"rendered":"New AI and Interactive Features Boost Digital Sales"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.albertsonscompanies.com\/home\/default.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Albertsons Companies<\/a>\u00a0saw growing engagement with its digital platforms during the last quarter.<\/p>\n<p>The food and drug retailer\u2019s digital sales increased 25% during the quarter ended June 14, outpacing its 2.8% increase in identical sales, Albertsons said\u00a0in\u00a0a Tuesday (June 15)\u00a0<a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.albertsonscompanies.com\/newsroom\/press-releases\/news-details\/2025\/Albertsons-Companies-Inc--Reports-First-Quarter-Fiscal-2025-Results\/default.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">earnings release<\/a>. It also saw a 14% increase in its loyalty program membership.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOngoing investments in our strategic priorities drove increased engagement across our digital platforms, evidenced by strong growth in our digital sales, pharmacy operations and membership in our loyalty program,\u201d Albertsons CEO <a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/morris-susan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Susan Morris<\/a> said in the release.<\/p>\n<p>Morris said Tuesday during the company\u2019s quarterly earnings call that the growth in digital sales boosted eCommerce\u2019s share of total grocery revenue during the quarter to 9%. She attributed the growth to Albertsons\u2019 customer service and mobile app.<\/p>\n<p>Recent enhancements to the company\u2019s digital experience include the introduction of artificial intelligence and interactive features, including one that allows customers to communicate back-and-forth with its in-store employees during the order fulfillment process and another that lets customers add items to their orders after placing them, until picking has started, \u201crecognizing that shoppers often think of one more item they need just after an order is placed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile our eCommerce penetration is still below industry peers, it is one of our biggest growth, customer acquisition and customer retention opportunities for 2025 and beyond,\u201d Morris said during the call. \u201cFrom a profitability perspective, our eCommerce business is near breakeven and improving.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The company said in the earnings release that the growth in digital sales leads to increases in delivery and handling costs, which contributed to a decrease in gross margin rate during the quarter.<\/p>\n<p>Albertsons\u2019 loyalty program grew to include\u00a047 million members after gaining 14% in the quarter, Morris said during the call. She added that the company had simplified the program and further enhanced the value it offers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMembers in the program today are engaging more frequently, using more of our easy-to-understand-and-redeem features and spending\u00a0more with us,\u201d Morris said.<\/p>\n<p>It was reported in January that Albertsons was investing heavily in\u00a0<a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pymnts.com\/earnings\/2025\/albertsons-doubles-down-on-digital-eyes-growth-despite-merger-setback\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">digital transformation<\/a> and that its digital connections were driving customer growth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Albertsons Companies\u00a0saw growing engagement with its digital platforms during the last quarter. The food and drug retailer\u2019s digital&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15068,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[182,14379,181,507,3105,8084,3,3300,7600,74,3301],"class_list":["post-15067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-albertsons","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-digital-transformation","tag-earnings","tag-news","tag-pymnts-news","tag-retail","tag-technology","tag-whats-hot"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}