The Fresh Market expands its partnership with retail tech company Invafresh

The Fresh Market has expanded its partnership with retail tech company Invafresh and will now use the company’s Fresh Retail Platform for its retail grocery operations.

In 2021, The Fresh Market saw success with Invafresh in its fresh food operations, which led to the grocery chain choosing the tech company to handle operations including inventory management and replenishment of the center store across all The Fresh Market’s categories including produce, meat, deli, dairy, bakery, grocery, bulk and floral, the grocer said.

“The guest is at the center of everything we do, and our focus is on delivering the freshest experience possible to them. Invafresh enables us to deliver on that commitment,” stated John Bishop, group vice president of operations at The Fresh Market, in a statement. “With perpetual inventory, any guesswork is taken out of our forecasting. The accuracy of forecasting provided by Invafresh has resulted in more efficient team members, ensuring products are always available when our guests shop, and lowering our overall capital holding in our back rooms.” 

The Fresh Market will also be using Invafresh for processing and managing AI-based demand forecasting across food retail merchandising, replenishment, compliance and sustainability for its 159 stores in 22 states, according to a news release.

“We are delighted that The Fresh Market has deployed Invafresh as the single solution to manage their entire store operations,” said Tim Spencer, Invafresh CEO, in a statement. “By leveraging our Fresh Retail Platform, they’ve been able to realize labor efficiencies through automating ordering and production decisions and redistributing that labor into serving their guests.”

Additionally, it was announced on Wednesday that The Fresh Market has implemented new voice communication technology in 44 of its stores. The company has integrated retail communications specialists VoCoVo headsets with telephony capabilities, allowing employees from different store areas to communicate better. Also, The Fresh Market installed VoCoVo's keypad devices to enable employees to call a manager or make requests with the push of a button, according to a news release. The devices will also help to improve store security.

“Since implementing VoCoVo's devices, our stores have been able to significantly improve efficiencies,” said Scott Jones, digital communications manager at The Fresh Market. “Having integrated VoCoVo's technology with our phone system, we were instantly able to cut out unnecessary walking, saving our store managers time in their day for more business-critical tasks. This could, for example, include attending to the armored car to make collection more efficient and ensure no additional charges are incurred, ultimately minimizing our business costs.”

VoCoVo is currently used by 30 global retailers and is active in over 13,000 stores with 250,000 daily users. Based in Chicago and Oxford, England, the rollout of its communication devices at The Fresh Market has expanded VoCoVo into the U.S. market.

“We're thrilled that The Fresh Market has chosen to enhance its in-store team communications and customer experience with VoCoVo's technology,” Martyn Jones, chief commercial officer, VoCoVo, said in a statement. We're glad to see demand and interest from North American retailers who are looking to improve customer service and in-store efficiencies in such a competitive market. Our partnership with The Fresh Market demonstrates our commitment to addressing those needs and represents a significant step forward in our regional growth strategy.”

The Fresh Market currently operates 159 stores in 22 states across the U.S.