Late this summer, Schnucks Rewards app users and website visitors will be able to access an AI-powered, agentic shopping assistant that will offer personalized nutrition guidance, meal ideas and product recommendations to help customers choose products that support their lifestyles.
Schnuck Markets partnered with VitalityIP on the project.
“Our customers are telling us they want trusted guidance with a number of aspects on their visits to Schnucks, whether they’re meal planning, tracking health goals, balancing special dietary needs, stretching their budget or looking for inspiration in the kitchen,” said Tom Henry, chief data and information officer for St. Louis, Missouri-based Schnucks.
“Together with VitalityIP, we’re creating a shopping experience that’s not only enjoyable but also more personal, more helpful and more rewarding.”
Drawing from more than 6 billion lines of shopping, health and nutrition data, the agent will be able to help customers make choices related to weight management, healthy aging, recovery and family wellness.
Sarah Hoit, co-founder and CEO of Boston-based VitalityIP, added, “Food is medicine, but until now, personalized nutrition options haven’t been available where people make food decisions every day. Schnucks recognized an opportunity to transform grocery shopping into a powerful experience that can actually help customers optimize their lives. Together we’ve made the latest food and nutrition science practical, personal and accessible for every shopper.”
Real customer and inventory data
The new technology powering this rollout was co-developed by VitalityIP and Schnucks using real customer input and actual store inventory. Schnucks maintains ownership of the customer relationship, shopper data and brand experience while leveraging VitalityIP’s AI and its proprietary database that bridges medical-grade health insights and ingredient-level product data.
“Retailers need smart solutions that scale to meet the personalized needs of the modern shopper. By partnering with VitalityIP, Schnucks will offer our customers an advanced agentic commerce platform fueled by critical food, health, nutrition, product and transaction data,” Henry added. “This agent won’t just be a search bar – it will be a personalized digital shopping assistant that understands Schnucks aisles, sales, promotions and customers’ lifestyles and can help shoppers plan meals, discover savings, organize parties and pair food and wine, just to name a few uses.”
Built for white-label use
While Schnucks will be the first to debut the VitalityIP platform, it was co-designed for white-label use by other retailers. Health systems, employers and wearable technology companies also can embed the platform into their digital experiences, the companies said.
“We partnered with one of the most innovative, forward-thinking and tech-savvy retail grocers to launch our VitalityIP engine,” said Michael Connor, co-founder and CTO of VitalityIP. “Not only is Schnucks bringing smarter shopping and healthier living tools to its customers, [but] together, we are pioneering an industry movement and inviting other retailers to join us. Our new platform proves that when you bring validated science directly into the aisles of your local grocery store, you transform how the world eats, shops and lives.”
Founded in St. Louis in 1939, Schnuck Markets is a family-owned grocery retailer operating 112 stores in Missouri, Illinois and Indiana with more than 11,000 employees. The company is part of 1939 Group, whose portfolio also includes Festival Foods and Hometown Grocers.