Associated Food Stores Introduces Wallet Builder

Salt Lake City-based Associated Food Stores has signed with Accelitec, Inc., based in Bellingham, Wash., to kick-off a customer relationship management platform to their independent retailers.

“We are excited to launch the Accelitec Wallet Builder in our Macey’s store with the introduction of the ‘Perks’ program,” said Jason Sokol, AFS director of marketing. “This platform puts us in a leadership position in the industry by using digital marketing to create higher levels of engagement with our shoppers.”

The digital strategy will provide AFS’ retail partners with an enterprise platform for precision marketing and real-time redemption of digital offers, promotions and to establish a one-to-one relationship with its shoppers.

“After the successful launch at Macey’s, many of our other retail brands, including Dick’s, Lin’s, Dan’s and Fresh Market, are scheduled next to aggressively engage with this solution,” said Sokol.

Accelitec’s Wallet Builder provides an innovative customer relationship platform helping retailers move beyond the traditional discount pricing techniques to improve customer retention and store profitability.

“We took the process of identifying the correct partner in the customer relationship management space very seriously, carefully analyzing all candidates in this area,” said David Rice, AFS executive vice president of retail. “Accelitec, Inc. stood heads above the others. They are a small, innovative company with the highest attention to data security, and the integrity, experience and technology capabilities we require.”

“It has been a great experience to work with the team at Associated Food Stores,” said Tom Bartz, Accelitec CEO. “It’s our privilege to bring new marketing tools to the AFS team to enhance their competitiveness in this challenging market. This innovative platform, combined with the Associated Food Stores commitment to retail support, will help their independent retailers stay ahead in the digital marketplace.”

This announcement follows AFS’ September 19th announcement of a strategic partnership with Google that will enable shoppers to easily discover and redeem digital coupons, as well as efficiently checkout with a tap of their phone using Google Wallet.