Bullseye’s proven best-in-class back-end support capabilities make it easier for Loblaw to conquer complexity and better connect with consumers.

The Problem

Loblaw is Canada’s food and pharmacy leader, with 200,000 employees across more than 2400 locations and $35 billion USD in sales in 2018 alone. With 25 banners across 5 distinct divisions—specialty grocery, discount grocery, pharmaceutical, apparel, and financial services—the company also offers major private label brands such as Life Bran, no name, and President’s Choice. With their focus on providing excellent customer service and value, and their Live Life Well brand purpose, Loblaw supports the diverse needs and well-being of Canadians nationwide, and they needed an enterprise-wide locator solution to do the same. This challenge included migrating all banner sites, integrating with call centers and IVR systems, and providing location search to a collection of new business initiatives.

One such initiative was consolidating customer loyalty programs and improving location search capabilities to support this change. When the company first engaged Bullseye, Loblaw was running two loyalty programs consisting of 15 million shoppers across multiple divisions and banners. To reduce administrative costs and improve user experience, Loblaw decided to relaunch their loyalty program and merge the two existing loyalty programs into a new program called PC Optimum, with its own website and mobile apps for iOS and Android.

Loblaw’s previous store locator system could not meet their demand for the accurate location data needed to provide location content as a reference, and as part of the verification process. Additionally, the technology used to run the banner websites was no longer supported, and the interfaces for updating location content were not user friendly, making it extremely inefficient and costly to maintain. As a result of infrequently-updated data, consumers sometimes received inaccurate information about store hours, their loyalty program status, and locations where they could redeem promotions.

To increase efficiency, cut costs and deliver unsurpassed customer service, Loblaw needed a store locator system upgrade. The right solution would be able to handle their new loyalty program; have the built-in flexibility to integrate with their mobile apps and website; and include backend administrative features that would be easier to use.

The Solution

Loblaw was familiar with Bullseye, because we provided a similar integration for Shoppers Drug Mart, which was acquired by Loblaw. Upon review, Loblaw found that the Bullseye platform was easy to use, and it provided the robust systems and customization features needed to complete the project. They chose Bullseye to improve their store locator system and support the consolidation of their two store loyalty programs into one.

A Bullseye store locator system was developed with hardware and IT to suit Loblaw’s needs, then Bullseye worked side by side with them to finalize the architecture and implement an integrated workflow with their in-house systems and data management team.

To streamline location data management and improve efficiency and accuracy, a centralized repository of location data was needed. To create it, Bullseye developed an integrated data processing workflow that empowered Loblaw to merge data and distribute it. Instead of having three data sources where data was inputted manually, data management was consolidated into one source, so data could be entered automatically. For greater clarity, specific user roles were also defined in the workflow.

Accurate location and store hours are key to ensuring consumer trust. Providing that consistency across Loblaw’s 2000 stores is a challenge, with added complexity from holiday schedules and departments that have their own hours. To improve data accuracy and input speed, Loblaw established a data maintenance department, which Bullseye supported with tools, processes and training. Multiple interfaces that pull data from Bullseye were also implemented across PC Optimum, and Health and Wellness mobile apps, and the company’s Book a Dietitian Search. Given these positive initial results, Loblaw is expanding its partnership with Bullseye. New Shoppers Drug Mart IVR System and Specialty Health Network integrations are currently in development and Loblaw continues to launch Bullseye locator support into other divisions and banners within their company.

As they roll out, Bullseye eliminates problems before they happen, reviewing the requirements for each new locator, making recommendations for the data architecture, and then vetting the changes downstream to make sure existing locators are not disturbed. When each locator system is finalized, Bullseye provides training to data maintainers on the tools and processes for managing the data, ensuring a smooth and stress-free transition for everyone involved.