InContext, the Chicago-based maker of virtual store simulation software used by major brands and retailers, has partnered with Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia to bring its retail technology into the classroom for students in the school’s Department of Food, Pharma and Healthcare.
The partnership gives students in the university’s food marketing program – a longtime talent pipeline for the grocery and CPG industries – hands-on experience with the same tools their future employers use to test merchandising decisions. Students will work in realistic virtual retail environments to analyze anticipated shopper behaviors, test hypotheses and make evidence-based recommendations, connecting data, technology, shopper behavior, merchandising and managerial decision-making.
“InContext is thrilled to join together with SJU to give students a hands-on experience that integrates leading-edge merchandising solutions into their curriculum,” said Rich Scamehorn, co-founder and chief data officer at InContext. “We are excited to share our tools such as Arrangement AI, which enables them to experience real-world situations they will face in the workforce as they learn how data-driven approaches can improve decision-making.”
The software lets students see the consequences of their merchandising choices before entering the industry.
“Instead of telling students that changing a shelf arrangement might influence shopper behavior, they can test that hypothesis in a realistic virtual environment and see how shopper behavior responds,” said Michael Marzano, assistant professor of practice at Saint Joseph’s. “That makes concepts like analytics, experimentation, AI, and decision-making tangible in a way that textbook exercises cannot.”
Founded in 2009, InContext provides virtual store technology including ShopperMX, a visualization platform that lets retail teams work in a digital twin of the store, and Arrangement AI, a predictive model for forecasting the sales impact of arrangement changes.
Saint Joseph’s, founded in 1851 as Philadelphia’s Jesuit university, houses its food marketing programs in the Erivan K. Haub School of Business, where the major has fed graduates into supermarket and CPG careers for decades through its cooperative education network and industry partnerships.