US Foods Inc. and Sysco Corp., have each launched accelerated e-commerce initiatives to offer customers faster digital ordering.
Grocery companies these days are eager to offer more digital commerce. US Foods derives most of its $32 billion in annual sales from B2B e-commerce, the latest initiative is to drive better mobile commerce through a new app. Sysco, meanwhile, is giving customers more personalization tools with its biggest digital update.
Sysco is a large multinational distribution company, serving more than 650,000 customer locations in 2021, including restaurants, healthcare, education, lodging and other hospitality customers. The company says it accounts for about 17% of the US $285 billion annual foodservice market, with 2021 sales of $51.3 billion.
Six years ago, Sysco spent $105 million to acquire e-commerce platform his provider Supply on the Fly. Sysco customers can now order more than 170,000 products online or by phone. Sysco also supplies restaurant supplies and equipment specifically for Sysco customers. Sysco has used the acquisition as a cornerstone of its e-commerce technology and business strategy.
Today, food service customers can visit SyscoShop.com online to research and purchase items from our inventory of over 450,000 products, finance purchases, receive complementary business advice, and save up to 14 months. You can access your previous order history and change the delivery deadline on existing orders.
“Sysco has its e-commerce infrastructure firmly established”, CEO Kevin Hourican told analysts on the company’s recent third-quarter 2022 earnings call. Sysco hasn’t released many details yet, but Sysco’s next big digital push is adding online product personalization tools for new and existing customers.
“Our sales organization boasts the highest customer satisfaction ratings in the industry and we want to build on that competitive advantage even further. We’ve worked hard to implement it into our sales process,” he said. “Our technical team has developed a system that presents the next best option to the customer for each sales representative.”
“While we have made great strides in improving our website, ordering platform and digital ordering platform, we want to be clear that it is not just the desktop version, it is the mobile version, sending customers emails containing quotes and order suggestions. We now have a click-to-order email that allows us to do that, and we can ship the product to them with the click of a button,” Hourican told analysts. “You don’t even have to go to an ordering platform. This is using modern technology to remove friction, tools and skills. ”
Another big grocery store that wants more e-commerce is US Foods.
Interim CEO Andrew Iacobucci told analysts, “U.S. Foods has been an industry leader in its field for more than a decade, and going digital is paramount to our success.”
US Foods plans to accelerate a mobile commerce and app initiative called Moxi sometime in the third or fourth quarter. The updated app offers faster product search, faster list management and ordering, and expanded product overview functionality.
“We are launching a next-generation digital tool called Moxi, which will give our customers more speed, reliability and control,” he told analysts. “This is a big change for the customer experience in terms of performance and usability.
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Source: Digital Commerce 360
