Victoria Gutierrez, senior vp and chief merchandising officer, Sysco Corp.
When outstanding food-service distributor Sysco Corp. decided to upgrade its online personalization features for purchasers, it didn’t take long for the advantages to roll in, senior vp and chief merchandising officer Victoria Gutierrez said in a keynote presentation at EnvisionB2B in Chicago.
Guiterrez noted that Sysco supplies food products to “half of the restaurants in the US” in addition to to varsities and other large customers, and set out three years ago to inject more personalization into its customers’ ecommerce experience. She added that digital operations now account for 80% of business with independent firms. Sysco reported $78.84 million in total sales for the fiscal 12 months ended June 29, 2024.
At EnvisionB2B, Gutierrez spoke in a “fireside chat” keynote presentation with DC360 editorial director Brian Warmoth.
Sysco enhances online personalization
A method Sysco has enhanced personalization, Gutierrez said, is by utilizing its market position. She noted that Sysco compiles and uses data on its sales to the restaurant industry to offer helpful product trends to restaurateurs and chefs based on the cuisine.
“We all know all the pieces they’ve ever bought [from Sysco]; we even have the attributes about size, their geography, their menu preferences,” Gutierrez said. “We take all that customer data, the 250,000 products they should purchase and all of the attributes … and our personalization algorithms help us really tailor the experience online.”
“Should you’re a chef at an Italian restaurant, I need you to see various things if you search tomatoes versus should you’re the chef in a Mexican restaurant,” she said. “And since now we have all that data — let’s say you’re the chef at that Italian restaurant, I can inform you things that other Italian restaurants are buying that you simply aren’t buying from us.”
Sysco grows $450 million in incremental sales via digital
Inside the first three years, Gutierrez noted, Sysco’s recent online personalization features in digital commerce and marketing generated $450 million in incremental sales.
Gutierrez said Sysco’s digital commerce platform complements several critical strategies:
⦁ Understanding what customers do and wish and making it easy to do business with Sysco.
⦁ Being a food-service industry “partner of selection” and making it easy for suppliers to do business with Sysco.
⦁ Help industry consultants understand Sysco’s strengths and add to its customer base.
⦁ Bringing the 24/7 capabilities to Sysco’s salesforce, providing customers the total range of sales and repair ,options they require.
Victoria Gutierrez, senior vp and chief merchandising officer, joins DC360 editorial director Brian Warmoth to debate Sysco’s digital commerce strategy at EnvisionB2B in Chicago this week.
“Two big things for our customers that basically, really modified — we were unexpectedly giving them a ton of knowledge they didn’t have access to before,” Gutierrez said. “They will go browsing and just grab all the attributes about an item.”
“After which the second was predictability,” she added. “In the event that they’re putting in their very own order … they’ll track what they’re actually getting and when it should show up.”
Sysco scores with recent sustainable product assortment
She noted that Sysco has also used its digital presence and expertise to introduce recent product lines.
“We launched our sustainable assortment last 12 months — 3,500 items which have sustainability certifications — and people items are a few of the fastest-growing items in our entire assortment, because customers are searching for them to place online … and work out how they’ll menu that and tell their customers about it.”
Paul Demery is a Digital Commerce 360 contributing editor covering B2B digital commerce technology and strategy. [email protected].
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