Algolia Helps Co-op Overcome Pandemic-Driven Online Demand

Algolia, the leading API Platform for Search & Discovery, announced that Co-operative Group (the Co-op), one of the United Kingdom’s largest food retailers with more than 2,500 local, convenience, and mid-sized grocery stores and 65,000 employees, has implemented its search and recommendation products enabling Co-op to rapidly scale its online food shopping experience and differentiate its offering.

“Like many businesses, Covid-19 forced us to reevaluate our online presence and build an expanded digital infrastructure coupled with an innovative delivery system”

By using the Algolia Search & Discovery platform, Co-op enables shoppers to make purchases online that are delivered to their homes with rapid delivery options including same-day delivery or a “click-and-collect” service for in-store pick-up. By introducing this new approach implementing Algolia Recommend, Co-op increased conversion rates by 39%, saw 45% growth in customer orders as additional items were added to shopping baskets, and improved overall customer experience.

With a hybrid shopping experience – basically an in-store and online experience – Co-op offered their customers a safe and convenient method to shop during a time when Covid-related restrictions on consumer movements were in place. Co-op’s hybrid shopping approach also attracted new customers, who enjoyed the new delivery choices.

“Like many businesses, Covid-19 forced us to reevaluate our online presence and build an expanded digital infrastructure coupled with an innovative delivery system,” said Gareth Cottiss, e-commerce development manager at Co-op Food. “Working with Algolia allowed us to improve and scale the online customer experience quickly. Importantly, it enabled us to serve a wide array of customers’ needs through our e-commerce platform, as well as operate more efficiently with our partners, such as Deliveroo and Amazon, who offered same-day, hyper-local, immediate delivery on top of our own store-pick-up.”

Also Read: 70% of Consumers Receive Mistargeted Information from Brands at Least Once a Month

The pandemic created another problem – retailers across the country experienced supply chain issues and product shortages. To ensure a good customer experience, it was critical that Co-op only offered items that were available in local stores. With Algolia’s blazing fast indexing and hyper-localization capability, Co-op was able to instantly update their website and provide a robust, accurate search experience, ensuring customers are only offered what is available in individual stores or offered alternatives. This ability to recommend suitable alternatives for out-of-stock items ensured that customers stayed with the retailer rather than bouncing to competitor sites.

Cottiss also noted: “Additionally, we were able to further fine-tune consumers’ search experience using Algolia’s artificial intelligence (AI)-powered Dynamic Re-Ranking ensuring we serve up the most relevant search results for our customers. We also use Algolia Recommend to further boost engagement through AI-powered carousels that feature relevant content for online shoppers to discover new items or special offers.”

Algolia Helps Co-op Overcome Pandemic-Driven Online Demand

Related Posts

MarTech360’S Weekly News Roundup With Tidio, Sprout Social, Mitel, TapClicks, Stirista And More!

Wowza Appoints Krish Kumar as CEO

Maven AGI Unveils AI Platform to Transform Customer Experiences

Anne DelSanto Joins StackAdapt Board

Bloomreach Empowers Ecommerce with New Holiday Features

Gong Launches AI Tools for Organizational Revenue Growth

Reality Defender and TaskUs Enhance Deepfake Detection for Moderation Teams