Almost 1.2 billion tons of food is lost on farms during pre-and-post-harvest/slaughter operations, and nearly 930 million tons of food is wasted in retail and final consumption levels, says a recent Capgemini Research Institute report on “Why Food Waste Is Everybody’s Problem.”
With numbers like that, it’s no wonder why 61% of consumers feel companies should do more to reduce waste, and 91% say they’d prefer to shop with organizations taking actionable steps to remedy this issue.
During a recent conversation, WGB spoke further to Lindsey Mazza, Global Retail Lead at Capgemini Invent, about food waste, as well as how dynamic pricing can help reduce the wasting of food.
“One area that we can really do better in is understanding how to price,” says Mazza. “How do we create dynamic pricing that changes by hour, by day, by when something was made, and how long it has left of its shelf life in order to entice consumers to want to buy a particular item?”
Dynamic pricing software developer Wasteless offers consumers just that … technology that differentiates pricing “for grocery foods based on their expiration date.” The company’s website says that they provide an all-in-one solution to reduce food waste, and increase perishable food profit by dynamically pricing items with a shorter expiration date at their optimal price point. By “allowing sustainable shopping decisions, while offering better price options to consumers,” near expiration date items can be purchased before they expire and go to waste.
Amazon also has digital shelf tags at its Amazon Fresh stores, allowing for dynamic pricing. On a recent tour of the new North Riverside store in Illinois, WGB reported how these tags can be changed anytime, anywhere virtually by Amazon.
So, “how do we get to a better demand understanding of who the consumer is, what they want to buy, and what their price sensitivity and willingness to buy on particular items is?” asked Mazza. By creating an improved production plan that really services the demand for the consumer, opening the availability to the consumer and giving them the option to use it, Mazza suggested.
See also: Amazon Fresh Opens 8th Illinois Location, Announces 3 More in Northern Virginia