Delivering Perishables to the Smart Home

We tested a number of solutions to perishable delivery in out smart home labs. Obviously this requires some expensive refitting of the home.

Walmart tests new delivery drop-off point — the customer’s fridge
By Deena M. Amato-McCoy

Walmart’s new grocery delivery program could give it a huge edge in the online ordering game.

The discount giant is testing a concept that will not only deliver fresh groceries, but also enable a delivery person to enter customers’ homes and put away perishables in their refrigerator. Walmart, which announced the news in a blog on its website, is partnering with August Home, a smart locks and smart home accessories provider, and same-day delivery company Deliv, to test the service.

Here’s how it works: Customers place their order online, and when the order is ready, a Deliv driver delivers it to the shopper’s home. If no one answers the doorbell, the driver enters a pre-authorized one-time passcode into a smart lock keypad installed beside the door. 

Customers receive a smartphone notification that the delivery is occurring, and they can monitor the delivery through home security cameras integrated with the August security app. Non-perishable items are left in the foyer, and fresh merchandise is placed into the shopper’s fridge. Once the Deliv associate leaves, the customer receives a notification confirming the delivery is complete and the door was automatically locked.

The concept is being tested among a handful of August Home customers in Silicon Valley. .... " 

Big Analytics Driving Grocery

Interesting view of Grocery and Big Data.  The complexity of grocery and its data, driving the utilization of the aisle.

Consumer buying behavior: How grocery stores can tap big data to meet shopper demand by Barbara Thau

It's no secret that online shopping continues to redefine consumer buying behavior. While supermarkets have been late to the online party, that's now changing rapidly.

Last month, Target began testing a same-day grocery delivery service with Instacart. Meanwhile, Amazon has been piloting AmazonFresh groceries in select markets to gauge consumer buying behavior, while also testing consumers' appetite for innovations such as Amazon Dash, a Wi-Fi connected device that allows shoppers to order products with a click of a button.

By definition, groceries are a complex business, as food is perishable and storage logistics are complex. However, food is also a high-frequency purchase that's largely insulated from economic downturns. As competition heats up in the grocery aisle, big data is gaining traction as the tool supermarkets need to counter rivals and remain profitable. ... ' 

Network Economics of Cybercrime and Data Assets

In Analytics Magazine:  This connects with some of my recent work looking at data asset and risk value.  Technical details at the link, reviewing. 

" ... A new computer-based model examining cybercrimes adds an important way of examining the perishable value of stolen data so policymakers can plan against future hacks such as the recent Anthem data breach, according to a study authored by Anna Nagurney and published by the INFORMS journal Service Science. The model captures the network economics of cybercrime activity and permits the policy evaluation of interventions. ...   A novel feature of the model is its inclusion of the critical time element and perishability of stolen cyber financial products whose value, as in the case of fresh produce, decreases over time, which in turn impacts their price on the black market. The model also identifies different demand prices for different financial products, with certain credit cards being more valuable because of credit limit, expiration date and continent of origin. ... " 

Text Signals as Sentiment

An area that a number of groups are looking at.

" ... In this burgeoning era of big data, a substantial majority of all the data is unstructured. Much of this unstructured data is textual, such as the data in reports, articles, emails, tweets, and even conversations or support calls recorded in textual transcripts. Because some of this information is perishable, the capability to process it quickly—in many cases, in real time or near-real time—is becoming quite important to enterprises. This processing requires text analytics capabilities.

What does the capability to perform text analytics mean? One simple example is processing a social media feed, such as Twitter, to extract any tweet that mentions a specific element of data such as a company name or a product. This simple approach to matching keywords can provide a quick glimpse into the presence of a product name in the public’s mind. Further, using Twitter-based metadata, for example, creates the possibility to divide this public perception into regions. ... "

Kroger Private Label Growth

Continued growth of retail private label, statistics:

How Kroger's private-label brands fuel growth 
Kroger's Simple Truth natural private-label brand is on track to reach $1 billion in annual sales, and its Kroger brand is the top-selling brand in its stores. The retailer's private-label brands have grown to account for 25% of grocery sales, company executives said, and Kroger has also added a range of lower-priced private labels for shoppers with smaller budgets, including P$$t for nonperishable items, Check this Out for household goods and Heritage Farm for fresh foods .... "