dunnhumby has worked with The Kroger Co., one of America’s largest grocery retailers, since 2002, helping it gain greater insight into its customers’ shopping behaviors.  Approximately 40% of U.S. households have one of Kroger’s loyalty cards, thus comprising one of the largest retail customer databases in America.

Since working with dunnhumby, Kroger has seen its sales grow consistently – the most recent quarter saw an increase in same store sales of 3.4%, its eighth consecutive quarterly increase.

Kroger and many retail analysts are attributing a major role in this success to dunnhumby. In a conference call with analysts in September 2005, Kroger Chairman and CEO David Dillon said, “dunnhumby has helped me reset my understanding of what the customer is after, and it helps replace intuition with actual data and actual facts. And it's those facts that are driving our decision-making.”

He added that “our commitment is to make sure that every decision we make positively influences the way our customers feel about Kroger.  This emphasis on placing the ’customer first’ generated increased customer traffic and higher average transaction size.“

dunnhumby also works with more than 20 of Kroger’s top consumer packaged goods suppliers.  We have created a more collaborative partnership between retailer and supplier by placing the customer at the center of the decision-making process.  dunnhumby and Kroger are helping these companies grow their sales within Kroger and better understand the US consumer and how they engage with their brands.

Our partnership with Kroger has allowed us to increase the relevance of many aspects of the customer’s shopping experience – from the design and layout of the stores to pricing strategies and optimization.  Communications are now planned and executed with a focus on the customer so we engage different customers through the most appropriate channels.

Supporting all of this are dunnhumby programs focused on engaging employees.  With targeted communication, training, new tools and processes, we’re helping Kroger equip their associates to provide the best possible shopping experiences to their customers.

dunnhumby has helped me reset my understanding of what the customer is after, and it helps replace intuition with actual data and actual facts. And it's those facts that are driving our decision-making.

David Dillon
CEO Kroger