Dive Brief:
- Raley’s is launching a personalized sampling box for its loyal customers through a partnership with gifting services company Bunny James, per a recent press release.
- Set to roll out this fall, the Something Extra Sampler Box — named after the grocer’s Something Extra loyalty program — will include a curated selection of around 20 products. The boxes will get delivered to Raley’s “top-tier shoppers,” according to the announcement.
- The new box program comes at a time when grocers and retailers are innovating their sampling offerings to fuel product discovery, win customer loyalty and find new ways to work with suppliers.
Dive Insight:
The new sampling box is the latest move by Raley’s to up its personalized shopping experience, which is already a key focus of its loyalty program.
The Something Extra Sampler Box, which the announcement said is “designed to create a fun, appreciation experience,” will include new products as well as customer favorites. The boxes will be delivered quarterly, per the announcement.
The program will collect customer data for Raley’s to help the grocer gain insights into customer preferences. Suppliers will also benefit from the customer data such as having visibility into consumer responses to survey questions about specific items, the announcement noted. Participating suppliers will be able to see how their participation in the sampling program affects their in-store and online velocities, the announcement said.
The box builds on Raley’s efforts to support product innovation and discovery for new offerings. The California-based grocery company sponsors a food lab within the Lab@AgStart incubator in Woodland, California, that serves as a location for product experimentation, development and testing.
After the COVID-19 pandemic dampened consumer appetite for in-store sampling, grocers have been experimenting with how to bring sampling back, both in-store and to customers’ homes. Earlier this year, Wakefern Food Corp. announced it is placing tech-enabled sampling kiosks from Freeosk in 95 ShopRite and The Fresh Grocer stores following a successful pilot.
By having customers scan in with their phones to access the kiosks, Wakefern can gather data to see if a product trial led to a purchase.
