Roche Bros. Selects Unata as Omnichannel Partner

Roche Bros. has tapped Unata to build an enhanced e-commerce and omnichannel platform. Set to be available at 18 Roche Bros. and Sudbury Farms stores, the regional grocery chain's new digital platform will facilitate home delivery in eastern and central Massachusetts, and curbside pickup at a growing number of store locations.

“Alongside [its] market-leading platform capabilities, we have selected Unata because of their ability to become our long-term digital partner,” said Geoff Farringdon, senior e-commerce manager at Wellesley, Mass.-based Roche Bros. “We’re committed to building the best digital customer experience possible and believe Unata is the right partner to help us do that, due to their deep category and digital expertise, long-term vision, collaborative working style and agile software development approach.”

“We know the new experience will not only help [Roche Bros.] deliver on their promise of customer service, but also provide a one-to-one shopper experience that will put them miles ahead of their competitors," added Chris Bryson, CEO of Toronto-based Unata.

Unata’s proprietary machine-learning recommendation engine and personalized search technology, which was built by former MIT research fellow and current Unata VP of Engineering Diego Maniloff, will be at the heart of the new Roche Bros. e-commerce experience. With the platform’s ability to continuously learn about each shopper’s individual purchasing behaviors over time, Roche Bros. will provide a completely one-to-one personalized shopping experience to its customers, including:

• One-to-one Personalized Homepage: The homepage will be one-to-one personalized for each shopper, listing the most relevant products and specials based on their purchase history.
• One-to-one Product Recommendations: Shoppers will be presented with One-to-one product recommendations across the online shopping experience, including related items to their current Shopping Cart.
• One-to-one Product Catalog: Each shopper will see a personalized version of the product catalog, with the most relevant items for the shopper provided in each department.
• One-to-one Sales Notifications: Shoppers will receive personalized notifications about sales and offers on products they have purchased before and on related products that they might like.

In addition to creating a more personalized customer experience, Unata’s platform includes:

• Shop by Attribute: Shoppers can organize and browse products based on attributes such as organic, on sale, local, gluten-free, and more.
• Complex Promotion Support: Shoppers can access all in-store specials, including complex promotions, within the e-commerce experience.
• Order Management: Roche Bros. staff can manage online orders through the new Unata-powered dashboard.
• Content Targeting: Roche Bros. staff can target and manage promoted content to shoppers.

Employing more than 4,800 associates in  21 Roche Bros., Sudbury Farms and Brothers Marketplace grocery stores, Roche Bros. is led by second-generation owners Rick and Ed Roche.