Progressive Grocer: Mobile Users Drive 1.7% of New Grocery Gateway Biz

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May 15th, 2013

Grocery Gateway, the online grocery shopping portal owned and operated by Toronto-based Longo Brothers Fruit Market Inc., saw a 43 percent lift in signups via its mobile application over the six months since it launched its Progressive Grocer Innovation Award-winning application on Unata’s mobile platform.

These users who signed up via the mobile application drove 1.7 percent of total revenues during this period, and the app is delivering 8 percent of total monthly orders for Grocery Gateway. The online grocer also leveraged Unata’s personalization technology to present shoppers with more relevant products, increasing the average number of items added to the basket by 14.9 percent.

“These results affirm that Unata’s platform delivers a strong user experience and can deliver significant incremental business,” said Chris Bryson, Unata founder and CEO.

Unata’s platform was implemented to power and personalize Grocery Gateway’s mobile experiences for iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows Phone 8 and Mobile Web.

The full case study, which includes additional proof points, can be found on Unata’s website

Unata is a leading Digital Shopper Marketing company that helps retailers to enhance and influence the in-store and online shopper experience through highly personalized digital experiences for mobile, tablet and web.

A family-owned Canadian organization, Longo’s first opened its doors in Toronto in 1956 and now operates 21 traditional stores, four small-format “The Market” by Longo’s and GroceryGateway.com.

http://www.progressivegrocer.com/top-stories/headlines/online-mobile/id39094/mobile-users-drive-1-7-of-new-grocery-gateway-biz/

Press Release: Unata drives 1.7% in net new business to Grocery Gateway through mobile

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TORONTO, ON— Today, Unata released in-market results from its first 6 months of work with Grocery Gateway,

demonstrating impressive increases in revenues and user engagement. Unata’s platform was implemented to power and personalize Grocery Gateway’s mobile experiences for iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows Phone 8 and Mobile Web.

From November 2012 to April 2013, the mobile Apps developed by Unata generated a 43% year-over-year lift in Grocery Gateway’s signups, while there was no significant year-over-year change in signups completed through the website. Users who signed up via the mobile applications drove 1.7% of total revenues during this period, delivering incremental business to Grocery Gateway. The high quality user experience that Unata designed resulted in the Apps being featured by Apple multiple times and included in Apple’s Best Apps of 2012 list, delivering increased exposure. The Apps also won an Innovation Award from Progressive Grocer in January 2013.

Unata’s personalization technology was leveraged to present shoppers using the Grocery Gateway Apps with more relevant products in order to increase basket size. After implementing this technology, the average number of items added to the basket rose by 14.9%.

After 6 months, the mobile applications are delivering 8% of total monthly orders, having grown steadily each month since launch.

“These results affirm that Unata’s platform delivers a superior user experience and can deliver significant incremental business,” said Chris Bryson, Unata Founder & CEO. The full case study, which includes additional proof points, can be found here. The Grocery Gateway App is available for free from the App Store on iPad or at www.AppStore.com

About Unata
Unata is a leading Digital Shopper Marketing company that helps retailers to enhance and influence the in-store and online shopper experience through highly personalized digital experiences for mobile, tablet, and web. Unata's platform connects to a retailer's ERP/loyalty systems to deliver automatically personalized experiences, track shoppers across the path to purchase, and enable 1-to-1 marketing. Unata is headquartered in Toronto, ON, and is supported by Aimia (TSE: AIM), a global leader in loyalty management. To learn more about Unata, visit www.unata.com

About Grocery Gateway
Grocery Gateway, owned and operated by Longo Brothers Fruit Market Inc. since 2004, is the leader in online sales of home delivered groceries in Ontario’s Golden Horseshoe area. Grocery Gateway is committed to helping consumers simplify their lives by removing a very time-consuming chore – in-store grocery shopping and providing them with the best food experience, freshest products, ease of order and delivery at the door. The Grocery Gateway mobile app, launched in October of 2012, has been featured by Apple as one of the Best Apps of 2012. To learn more about Grocery Gateway, visit www.grocerygateway.com.

About Longo’s
A family-owned Canadian organization, Longo’s first opened its doors in Toronto in 1956 and now operates 21 traditional stores , 4 small format “The Market” by Longo’s and GroceryGateway.com, the leader in online sales of home delivered groceries.  Longo’s employ more than 4,600 team members across the GTA .  Inspired by their Founders and their commitment to a Fresh Tradition, the Longo’s team of food experts is dedicated to exceeding customer expectations by offering the best food experience at a great value to every customer, every time by providing Fresh & Unique Offerings, Everyday Foods & Groceries, Services for Ease and Education and ideas.  Coming soon to Southeast Oakville in June 2013, is Longo’s 26th store at 469 Cornwall Road. For more information visit longos.com.

For more information:
Madeline Marovino                                                                                                                             
Marketing Manager, Unata                                                                                                           
madeline@unata.com 
(416) 873-7556                                                                                                       

Canadian Grocer: Longo’s debuts online grocery iPad app

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Longo’s debuts online grocery iPad app
Toronto grocer says iPad app is first of its kind in Canada

By Canadian Grocer staff  |  April 11, 2013

Longo’s has launched an online shopping and delivery app for iPad.

The Toronto grocery chain says its Grocery Gateway iPad app, which was developed by digital shopper marketing company Unata, is the first of its kind in Canada.

The app lets customers of Longo’s e-grocery service, Grocery Gateway, create orders, select a delivery time and check out using a credit card.

“Launching a dedicated iPad experience is an important part of supporting our customer base’s growing demand for a convenient mobile experience,” Stephen Tallevi, general manager for Grocery Gateway, said in a release.

READ: Google, now a grocer as well

Longo’s announced its partnership with Unata last October, the same day it launched an iPhone and mobile web app.

Chris Bryson, CEO of Unata, said that by the time the two companies inked the deal, Grocery Gateway was “already well established.”

So Unata’s mission was to “power their mobile experiences, with a spin on it to make sure the experiences were highly personalized.”

Bryson provided a few examples of these personalized features. One is a “Featured” section that automatically generates product collections for shoppers based on criteria such as their most frequently purchased items, top sellers and trending products.

“Personalizing is critical, especially in the retail environment,” said Bryson. “[Grocery Gateway] has thousands of products, and customers are starved for time. So this puts the right items in front of them right off the bat.”

The app appears to be user-friendly as well, which no doubt contributed to its high 4.5 rating (out of 5) on the App Store, where it can be downloaded for free.

READ: The French Revolution

A 2010 DataMonitor study described online grocery as the world’s “next star performer” in online retailing, but there are shockingly few of these services in Canada compared to countries such as Great Britain where most of the top grocery chains offer online ordering.

Bryson estimates there are a few specialized e-grocers in Western Canada (including Spud.ca, which is available in Vancouver, on Vancouver Island and in Calgary). But he believes that Grocery Gateway, which services the Toronto area, is the top online grocer in Canada.

http://www.canadiangrocer.com/top-stories/longos-debuts-new-online-grocery-ipad-app-23670

Progressive Grocer: Longo’s Launches Grocery Gateway iPad App

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http://www.progressivegrocer.com/top-stories/headlines/technology/id37793/longos-launches-grocery-gateway-ipad-app/

Top Stories » Headlines » Technology
Apr 10, 2013

Longo’s Launches Grocery Gateway iPad App

Canadian grocer Longo Brothers Fruit Markets Inc. has launched its Grocery Gateway App for iPad, which supports grocery delivery, allowing shoppers to easily create orders, select a delivery time, and securely checkout with any credit card.

The app, developed by Toronto-based digital shopper marketing company Unata, is available now in the App Store, and is the latest addition to the suite of apps that Grocery Gateway offers for iPhone, Android, Windows Phone 8, and Mobile Web.

As one of the largest independently owned supermarket chains in Canada, Longo's prides itself on its customer-centric focus. "Launching a dedicated iPad experience is an important part of supporting our customer base's growing demand for a convenient mobile experience," said Stephen Tallevi, general manager for Grocery Gateway.

The Grocery Gateway App leverages iPad's larger screen to provide an easy to use interface. Unata adapted its dual-panel navigation into a multi-panel interface, making it easier and faster to navigate the entire product catalogue on the iPad. The cart has been made accessible from every screen within the app to simplify the checkout process. Since the iPad, the Grocery Gateway website, and the other mobile apps and website are synchronized, users can start building an order on one device and complete it on another.

Powered by Unata's personalization engine, the Featured section provides an easy way to swipe across automatically generated product collections. These collections include recommended items, trending products, popular specials, top selling items, and access to the user's most frequent purchases.

"As we work with Longo's to make their digital experiences more convenient and personalized, we are now enabling the shopper to engage on their iPad, with an experience tailored to the device," said Chris Bryson, Unata Founder and CEO.

Unata aims to help retailers enhance and influence the in-store and online shopper experience through highly personalized digital experiences. Its platform connects to a retailer's ERP/loyalty systems to deliver automatically personalized experiences, track shoppers across the path to purchase, and enable 1-to-1 marketing.

Grocery Gateway, owned and operated by Longo Brothers Fruit Markets Inc. since 2004, is the leader in online sales of home delivered groceries in Ontario's Golden Horseshoe area. It won the 2012 PG TECH Innovation Award for its Unata-developed mobile app.

Family-owned Longo's operates 21 traditional stores , four small format The Market by Longo's stores, and GroceryGateway.com.

Press Release: Longo's and Unata Launch Grocery Gateway iPad App

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http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/1143885/longo-s-and-unata-launch-grocery-gateway-ipad-app

TORONTO, April 10, 2013 /CNW/ - Today, Longo Brothers Fruit Markets Inc. and Unata, a leading Digital Shopper Marketing company, launched the Grocery Gateway App for iPad, available now in the App Store. The Grocery Gateway App for iPad is the first Canadian tablet app to support grocery delivery, allowing shoppers to easily create orders, select a delivery time, and securely checkout with any credit card. This is the latest addition to the suite of apps that Grocery Gateway offers for iPhone, Android, Windows Phone 8, and Mobile Web.

The Grocery Gateway App leverages iPad's larger screen to provide an easy to use interface. Unata adapted its dual-panel navigation into a multi-panel interface, making it easier and faster to navigate the entire product catalogue on the iPad. The cart has been made accessible from every screen within the app to simplify the checkout process. Since the iPad, the Grocery Gateway website, and the other mobile apps and website are synchronized, users can start building an order on one device and complete it on another.

Powered by Unata's personalization engine, the Featured section provides an easy way to swipe across automatically generated product collections. These collections include recommended items, trending products, popular specials, top selling items, and access to the user's most frequent purchases.

As one of the largest independently owned supermarket chains in Canada, Longo's prides itself on its customer-centric focus. "Launching a dedicated iPad experience is an important part of supporting our customer base's growing demand for a convenient mobile experience" said Stephen Tallevi, General Manager for Grocery Gateway.

"As we work with Longo's to make their digital experiences more convenient and personalized, we are now enabling the shopper to engage on their iPad, with an experience tailored to the device," said Chris Bryson, Unata Founder & CEO.

The Grocery Gateway App is available for free from the App Store on the iPad or at www.AppStore.com

About Unata 
Unata is a leading Digital Shopper Marketing company that helps retailers to enhance and influence the in-store and online shopper experience through highly personalized digital experiences. Unata's platform connects to a retailer's ERP/loyalty systems to deliver automatically personalized experiences, track shoppers across the path to purchase, and enable 1-to-1 marketing. Unata is headquartered in Toronto, ON.

About Grocery Gateway
Grocery Gateway, owned and operated by Longo Brothers Fruit Markets Inc. since 2004, is the leader in online sales of home delivered groceries in Ontario's Golden Horseshoe area. Grocery Gateway is committed to helping consumers simplify their lives by removing a very time-consuming chore - in-store grocery shopping and providing them with the best food experience, freshest products, ease of order and delivery at the door. The Grocery Gateway mobile app, launched in October of 2012, has been featured by Apple as one of the Best Apps of 2012. To learn more about Grocery Gateway, visit www.grocerygateway.com.

About Longo's
A family-owned Canadian organization, Longo's first opened its doors in Toronto in 1956 and now operates 21 traditional stores , 4 small format "The Market" by Longo's and GroceryGateway.com, the leader in online sales of home delivered groceries. Longo's employs more than 4,600 team members across the GTA .  Inspired by their Founders and their commitment to a Fresh Tradition, the Longo's team of food experts is dedicated to exceeding customer expectations by offering the best food experience at a great value to every customer, every time by providing Fresh & Unique Offerings, Everyday Foods & Groceries, Services for Ease and Education and ideas.  Coming soon to Southeast Oakville in June 2013, is Longo's 26th store at 469 Cornwall Road. For more information visit longos.com.

Follow us on Twitter: @LongosMarkets
Visit our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/LongosMarkets

SOURCE: Longo's

For further information:

Madeline Marovino
Marketing Manager, Unata
madeline@unata.com
(416) 873-7556

Odette Coleman
Mansfield Communications
odette@mcipr.com
(416)599-0024 ex.231

Video of Unata's PYCON Tutorial posted online

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On March 13th, three of Unata's developers recently showcased the company's expertise related to recommendation engines, providing a tutorial at the PYCON conference, titled "A beginner's introduction to Pydata: how to build a minimal recommendation engine".

A video of the tutorial has now been made available online here: http://pyvideo.org/video/1654/a-beginners-introduction-to-pydata-how-to-build

The session was hosted by Diego Maniloff, Unata's Lead Data Scientist, as well as Amr Hiram and Zach Howard. Here was the summary of the tutorial:

  • "In this tutorial we'll set ourselves the goal of building a minimal recommendation engine, and in the process learn about Python's excellent Pydata and related projects: numpy, pandas, and pytables. A recommendation engine is a software system that analyzes large amounts of transactional data and distills personal profiles to present its users with relevant products/information/content."

Grocery Gateway iPad app rises to top of App Store

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Today the Grocery Gateway iPad app, produced by Unata, rose to the #1 position in the Apple App Store for iPad Apps in the Food & Drink category, becoming another testament to the high quality user experiences that Unata produces.

Apple's list of top apps is based on the number of user downloads, meaning that the app is currently trending as the top downloaded application in that category.

Unata's work featured again by Apple

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Upon the heels of the release of the Grocery Gateway iPad app, Apple once again featured Unata's work, handpicking both the iPad and iPhone apps and displaying them prominently in multiple locations across the iTunes App Store:

  • The iPad Home section, under "New & Noteworthy"
  • The iPad Food & Drink section, with the 1st position in the carousel @ the top of the page, as well as the "New & Noteworthy" subsection
  • The iPhone Home section, under "New & Noteworthy"
  • The iPhone Food & Drink section, with the 1st position in the carousel @ the top of the page, as well as the "New & Noteworthy" subsection

Find out more about the app @ www.grocerygateway.com/app/

Mobile Syrup: Grocery Gateway now has a "beautiful iPad app"

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Reposted from Mobile Syrup

By Daniel Bader on March 18, 2013 at 6:14pm in Mobile News

Grocery Gateway, the web-based grocery delivery service for the Greater Toronto Area, has released a beautiful iPad app for browsing a directory of over 8,500 items. The company, which was bought by the Longo’s chain nearly 10 years ago, has been wanting for a proper mobile solution, which first came to the iPhone and mobile web last year.

The iPad app takes the clean interface, intuitive navigation and high-resolution photos of the iPhone version and puts the larger real estate to better use. You see descriptions of products, nutritional information and, to the left, various items in the same category. Customers can also browse various behaviour-generated Featured Products sections, which cater choices to you based on purchase and browsing history. This will allow you to refill your cart with oft-used items without navigating through the entire chain.

Grocery Gateway users can also see sale items all in one place, as well as add and remove products from the cart with one tap.

The iPhone app has also seen a nice sprucing, with improvements to item photo quality, performance and many bug fixes. There are also Android and Windows Phone apps, but they’re not as full-featured as the iOS version.

Download Grocery Gateway for iOS, Android, Windows Phone 8 and the Mobile Web.

http://mobilesyrup.com/2013/03/18/grocery-gateway-for-ios-gets-ipad-support-and-high-resolution-redesign/

Unata launches WP8 app for Grocery Gateway

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Unata has extended the Grocery Gateway mobile experience to now support Windows Phone 8 devices. 

This is a true native application that incorporates the same features as the iPhone app, but was redesigned to accomodate the design language of the new Windows Phone 8 experience.

Find out more about the app and other supported platforms @ www.grocerygateway.com/app/

Unata launches iPad app for Grocery Gateway

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Unata has taken the award-winning iPhone experience that it built for Grocery Gateway and extended it to the iPad.

The new iPad app includes all the same features and functionality as the iPhone app, and also takes advantage of the larger screen to create new user interfaces. The "Featured Collections" section includes new product photography and a seamless way to use gestures to browse across collections. The "Shop" section showcases a new panel-based UI that was built to make it as easy and fluid as possible to navigate the entire inventory of Grocery Gateway's 9,000 items. And the "Cart" is now always accessible from the top right hand corner, making the checkout process even easier. 

Find out more about the app and other supported platforms @ www.grocerygateway.com/app/

Unata talks @ PYCON 2013

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Today, Unata attended PYCON 2013 in Santa Clara, where 3 of its team members hosted a tutorial that leveraging the team's experience with recommendation engine technology.

The session was called "A beginner's introduction to Pydata: how to build a minimal recommendation engine" and was hosted by Diego Maniloff, Unata's Lead Data Scientist. A video of the presentation will be available shortly through Pycon's website.

*a video of the tutorial has now been made available @ http://pyvideo.org/video/1654/a-beginners-introduction-to-pydata-how-to-build

Unata accepts award at NRF 2013

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Today, Unata and Longo's accepted their Technology Innovation Award from Progressive Grocer at the 2013 NRF convention in New York City. Chris Bryson, Unata's CEO, was in attendance to accept the award, which was was for their rapid and successful launch of the Grocery Gateway mobile applications.  

Joe Tarnowski from Progressive Grocer, John Charleson from Longo's, Chris Bryson from Unata

Joe Tarnowski from Progressive Grocer, John Charleson from Longo's, Chris Bryson from Unata

Unata wins Progressive Grocer Tech Innovation Award for mobile shopping app Grocery Gateway

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By Joseph Tarnowski

PG Tech's Innovation Award winners deployed solutions that made shopping, ordering and securing easier.

As the headline notes, "easy" seemed to be the theme that spanned the innovations of Progressive Grocer Tech's second annual Innovation Awards.

Geissler's developed an online platform from which it could centrally deploy all of its multimedia initiatives, wholesaler Laurel Grocery deployed a network appliance that reduced the efforts needed to protect its infrastructure from outside attacks, Loblaws' new iPhone app was so easy to use that Apple featured it in its Apple Store, and Rollin' Oats' new computer-assisted ordering system makes accurate ordering and store-level inventory a snap.

But while they made lives easier for users, none was easy from the standpoint of implementation and often had to overcome hurdles such as legacy systems, cost and — usually the toughest challenge — change management. Still, each of this year's winners managed to fight through these challenges and generated real ROI with their solutions, and, what's more, they've pushed the envelope and shine as examples for other retailers to follow.

Congratulations to our winners!

Longos/Grocery Gateway
Vendor: Unata
Category: Mobile

Grocery Gateway is Longos' Internet grocery delivery service based in Toronto. The Canadian grocer developed a new mobile app that would allow shoppers to order groceries on the go, using an intuitive new user interface and personalized recommendations.

Longos and Unata had several goals for the new app: First, it had to provide the same functionality as Longos' Grocery Gateway website in a simpler, mobile-friendly app (both in an iPhone app version as well as a mobile Web version) that allows users to save payment info. The app had to integrate with a third-party service provider and launch within five months. Finally, the app had to drive new business.

Development of the app began in mid-May 2012 and was completed just four months later. According to Toronto-based Unata, it was extremely challenging to take all of the features of a website that was built more than a decade ago and represent these features on a smaller screen with a new interface that would be easier to use, while at the same time not alienating existing users, and attracting new ones.

The app provides a completely new user interface for shoppers that reduces the number of "clicks" required for various features and makes the shopping experience more pleasant, according to Unata. It also uses the vendor's technology to provide each shopper with personalized product recommendations (whether on sale or not) based on the user's previous purchases. Combined with an easy transaction purchase experience, the new app has led users to spend more via the mobile app than the website has.

The iPhone app is currently rated 4.5/5 stars on the iTunes App Store and was hand-picked by Apple to be featured on the iTunes homepage at launch time. Preliminary data indicates that in addition to users' spending more via the mobile app, it's also generating many new customers.

http://www.progressivegrocer.com/inprint/article/id5376/easy-tech/

30% of new Grocery Gateway Members coming from Mobile

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Produce Retailer recently published an article about various Grocery delivery services, and mentioned the Grocery Gateway mobile app, which is powered by Unata's platform.

The article quoted Stephen Tavelli, the co-founder and General Manager at Grocery Gateway, who revealed that almost 30% of their new customers now register through a mobile device. “They’ve actually become customers because of the app,” Tallevi says.

The trend is bound to continue, he says, as the online customer base shifts from families to career-driven young people living in downtown condominium towers who’d prefer to spend their free time going out instead of wandering supermarket aisles.

http://www.produceretailer.com/produce-retailer-issues/Deliverys-modern-makeover-185472251.html?ref=251&page=3

Unata Wins Award from Progressive Grocer

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This week we were honoured to find out that Unata won an 2012 Innovation Award from Progressive Grocer's for its work with Grocery Gateway.

The award ceremony will be taking place in NYC on Jan 14, where Unata will be attending to receive the award.

You can read more about Progressive Grocer's Innovation Award winners here: 
http://www.progressivegrocer.com/top-stories/headlines/technology/id36979/congrats-to-our-innovation-award-winners/

Globe & Mail: The first Canadian mobile app for grocery delivery.

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TERRY BRODIE
THE GLOBE AND MAIL
Friday, Nov. 02 2012

Toronto-based supermarket chain Longo Brothers Fruit Markets Inc. and Toronto-based digital shopper marketing company Unata Inc. have teamed up to launch a mobile application to shop for groceries.

The new app will allow shoppers to order grocery deliveries on their iPhone or mobile web app from online grocery delivery service GroceryGateway.com, which is owned by Longo’s. Users will be able to create orders, view previously purchased items, pick a delivery time, and securely check out with any credit card, according to the release. It claims to be the first Canadian mobile app for grocery delivery.

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