Walgreens Teams with Verizon for Digital Boost
Walgreens is beefing up the customer experience.
The retailer and Verizon Business have announced a multi-year strategic partnership where Verizon will deploy its Network as a Service (NaaS), an all-encompassing solution that will deliver an enhanced customer experience to more than 9,000 Walgreens and Duane Reade retail locations across the United States.
The foundation of the partnership is underpinned by the full breadth of Verizon’s assets including LTE, 5G and Verizon Media, which will enable Verizon to continuously offer the latest in technological and business process innovation.
“This is the largest, fully customized, Network as a Service solution for a partner on this scale,” said Tami Erwin, CEO, Verizon Business. “Working closely with Walgreens to understand their focus areas, we’ve tailored an offering that will meet their technology needs of today, and quickly scale to offer a rolling deployment of 5G in Walgreens locations, next-gen in-store experiences for customers and employees, and future-proofed backend operations to enhance efficiencies.”
Verizon Business’s NaaS is an on-demand solution utilizing the latest connectivity, network and security technologies. The on-demand offering takes multiple technologies, and delivers a single solution to the customer to enable their digital transformation. As technology evolves, customers like Walgreens will have the newest technology almost instantly and can focus on what matters to them most.
The move comes as retailers become even more digitally-focused during the pandemic.
Walgreen’s “digital transformation is focused on modernizing and digitizing our company to provide customers with seamless and personalized shopping experiences, whether in-store, online or in the palm of their hand,” said Mike Maresca, global chief technology officer, Walgreens Boots Alliance. “We continue to enhance our business systems and processes both internally and with industry-leading partners to meet the changing needs of Walgreens customers and boost productivity across our workforce. Verizon’s 20 years of experience in this space will help transform our network in the U.S. and also serve as a foundation for our future digital innovations.”
Walgreens operates 9,277 drug stores, with a presence in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, along with its omnichannel business, Walgreens.com. The Deerfield, Illinois-based company is No. 4 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2020 list of the top food retailers in North America. Albertsons is No. 8 on PG's list.
