Kroger and Microsoft announced a partnership that will bring digital shelves, price tags, and advertisements to two pilot grocery stores in Ohio and Washington State, near each company’s headquarters. This will redefine the customer’s shopping experience using Kroger Technology products powered by Microsoft Azure, the retailer’s preferred cloud platform for retail as a service (RaaS).
“Kroger is building a seamless ecosystem driven by data and technology to provide our customers with customized food inspiration,” said Rodney McMullen, Kroger chairman and CEO. “We are identifying partners through Restock Kroger who will help us reinvent the customer experience and create new profit streams that will also accelerate our core business growth. We are excited to collaborate with Microsoft to redefine grocery retail.”
Rather than using traditional paper tags, it uses latest generation of the EDGE (Enhanced Display for Grocery Environment) Shelf digital display system. EDGE shelf communicates everything from pricing and promotion to nutritional and dietary information. Kroger’s Scan, Bag, Go mobile checkout technology will create a unique shopping experience. The app works with cloud based software and sensors that will direct the customer to the correct corridor. Microsoft Azure-powered video analytics can help to deal with out-of-stocks. Kroger will sell the latest technology with Microsoft (MSFT) to retailers in the United States and around the world.