United Natural Foods, Inc. and ECRS, a retail solutions provider, today announced an agreement allowing ECRS’s Catapult retail users to take advantage of the UNFI Professional Services suite. UNFI's program includes digital coupons, third-party delivery services, and electronic payment capabilities.
Catapult connects inventory and supply chain, customer loyalty, point-of-sale, self-service, online ordering, and other retail operations technologies to streamline the experience for grocers, according to the company. UNFI customers using Catapult will experience an elevated customer experience as a result of the partnership, according to UNFI.
The agreement provides for a working relationship around Electronic Data Interchange capabilities, a service that allows for the exchange of documents between businesses, and helps educate UNFI field associates through ECRS retail automation technology training.
“UNFI retail customers utilize our scale, insights, and innovative offerings to deliver a differentiated value proposition and our agreement with ECRS will help these retailers continue to grow and thrive,” said UNFI president Chris Testa, in a statement. “It is imperative in today’s environment that retailers use technology to simplify their business and elevate the shopping experience, giving them more time to focus on their consumers.”
With ECRS’s supply chain software, ECRS Gateway, and UNFI’s Data Exchange program, UNFI retail customers can automate supply chain processes and simplify the ordering experience.
“UNFI provides a great deal of technological services at a scale that can give our mutual retail customers tremendous leverage in the marketplace,” said Pete Catoe, ECRS founder and CEO, in a statement. “This agreement allows ECRS to play an active role in ensuring our UNFI customers can take full advantage of these competitive differentiators.”
Currently, ECRS Gateway hosts over 2,000 EDI accounts across UNFI’s retail customer network. Using ECRS Gateway, these retailer accounts are expected to process over 500,000 electronic transmissions in 2023, in the form of purchasing and receiving documents to and from UNFI.
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