15 Feb The grocery store and supermarket shopping industries have combined annual revenues in the hundreds of billions of dollars. With little variation in available item selection and p

The grocery store and supermarket shopping industries have combined annual revenues in the
hundreds of billions of dollars. With little variation in available item selection and price as well
as less money being spent on groceries in the downtrodden economy, competition for customer
loyalty is stiff. By using information technologies (ITs) to help process buying habits of its customers, Stop & Shop, a Quincy, Massachusetts?based grocer, tried to get a better grasp on
the hard?to?understand concept of customer loyalty in grocery shopping.

Stop & Shop introduced Scan It!, a portable electronic device for customers shopping in its
stores. The device allowed customers to “scan and bag” products, expediting checkout times
at the end of their shopping trip. Additionally, the device offered deals based on the location
of the scanner (and therefore the customer) in the store. Location?specific discounts in real time
became increasingly popular among customers as use of Scan It! grew by 10% in both the first
and second quarters after its introduction. The most beneficial aspect of the Scan It!, however,
came with the powerful software built into the device by Modiv Media in which Stop & Shop
owns a minority interest. The software kept track of each customer’s past and present
purchasing habits in order to individualize coupons in real time for the customer.

The scanner resulted in three positive trends for Stop & Shop. Customer loyalty grew, allowing
the company to secure an increased customer base than area demographics would predict.
Additionally, each shopper’s basket size increased as the individually tailored coupons enticed
customers to buy more. Lastly, Stop & Shop’s customer base grew as word of mouth marketing
brought in more customers to try the state?of?the?art device.

However, after a couple of years, Stop & Shop saw customer adoption plateau. In October
2011, the grocer created the Scan It! App via the help of freelancers. The Scan It! App could
be used for iPhone and Android. By eliminating the need to sign in and retrieve a scanner at
the store, customer adoption of the device continued its upward climb. In addition, as customers
became increasingly concerned about saving money while shopping, Stop & Shop built in
budgeting software that allowed customers to track their spending more effectively. Ads for
the new app proclaimed: “New Mobile App Allows Customers to Shop, Bag, and Tally Their
Grocery Order with Their Personal iPhone? and Android? Devices.” Scan It! was heralded
as “a first of its kind grocery app that allows customers to use their personal mobile device to
scan, tally, and bag their groceries while they shop.”

Stop & Shop had bundled an app that not only rewarded customers who shopped at its stores
by helping them save money but also tracked information on sales, which the company loaded
into its data warehouse. The IT team of Stop & Shop perform analyses based on the data in the
data warehouse and provide business insights regarding its customers to Stop & Shop
management. The results from the analyses helped Stop & Shop put the right items on its
shelves to maximize sales and create customer loyalty.
Propose how information resources can be employed by Stop & Shop as strategic tools
by describing an example of the following:
Information repository
Technical skills
IT management skills
Relationship skills (externally focused)
Note that the information resources framework can be categorised as IT capabilities and IT
assets.