As the third year of its smarter selling transformation programme comes to an end, Coles will focus on innovation.
The smarter selling transformation approach was introduced in 2019 with the goal of reducing the retailer’s annual business spending by $1 billion.
The world’s largest grocery chain revealed that its smarter selling approach generated benefits worth about $230 million over the course of FY22 and is on track to achieve its four-year savings goal of $1 billion by the end of FY23.
The primary pillars of the strategy have “been renewed,” according to Coles CEO Steven Cain, in order to expand its services “to satisfy the needs of omnichannel customers.”
Innovation will now take precedence over smarter selling, according to Cain.
According to Cain, Coles updated its career website and hiring procedures over the course of the previous fiscal year, “using technology to deliver a more streamlined and efficient process.”
In addition, Coles intends to “accelerate new space and renew stores at a comparable level to FY22,” opening “about 20 new stores, closing nine locations, and renewing roughly 40 stores in supermarkets and in liquor.”
With supermarket e-commerce sales at 41% and liquor e-commerce sales at 49%, Cain said that “in e-commerce we delivered really good growth.”
“During the year, significant expenditures were made on a unified app and customer experience capacity. Our unified website was just just launched as well.
“Long-term structural cost advantages will be achieved through smarter selling programmes, integrating data automation and technology,” according to Cain.
We’ll also speed up the self-service shop transformation and concentrate on smarter selling 2.0. Additional projects involving technology, AI, and data will be part of this.
The distribution centre operations were streamlined through automated (paperless) truck entry/exit for 45,000 supplier cars, according to Coles, who claimed that over the course of the year it enhanced processes and increased efficiency through data-driven insights.
Coles renovated and improved 50 supermarkets throughout the year, six Coles Local locations, and 208 liquor outlets, including 191 Black & White Liquorland, eight First Choice Liquor Market, and nine Vintage Cellar Evolution locations.
