How did the partnership with Albertsons come about?
Albertsons was looking for true discovery functionality for its exclusive Vine & Cellar collection, creating a way for their shoppers to easily find the many wines they would love.
Albertsons and Preferabli have teamed up to give Albertsons Vine & Cellar customers individual wine recommendtions based on their personal likes and dislikes
That’s what Preferabli software does, like a human expert at scale. The dialogue was streamlined through our respective lead Masters of Wine.
What is it specifically looking to achieve by working with Preferabli and your advanced technology services?
Albertsons is looking to achieve truly personalised discovery through individual taste preferences. Our solutions work both online and in store for any shopper or associate. The software integration was fast and easy, as Preferabli software was simply plugged into its ecommerce platform.
What makes Albertsons and its Vine Cellar Reserve service an ideal partner for you to work with?
The Albertsons collection is extraordinary, having been handpicked by Master of Wine, Curtis Mann, and his expert buying team. Our software creates the ability for anyone to find exactly what they’re looking for within the collection through various discovery paths – all rooted in individual taste preferences.
You say your partnership will give Albertsons customers the chance to curate their own personal shopping experience - how is that going to work?
An example of how the new Vine & Cellar Reserve shopping platform looks like
The Vine & Cellar Reserve experience includes rich content, guided recommendations, and a showcase for wines with similar taste characteristics that shoppers use as a discovery tools. Shoppers can also get food pairing recommendations.
Putting wine and food together is important to grocery retail, as it increases the basket in both categories.
As well as individual wine suggestions you are also suggesting food pairings too - how do you do that?
Preferabli is home to the largest group of Masters of Wine and Master Sommeliers in the world. Our experts have catalogued taste characteristics for all the wines and food at Albertsons and rationalised them in the context of pairings.
Preferabli hopes the link up with Albertsons will help it introduce similar advanced personalisation services with other retailers around the world and in the UK
Preferabli software also provides a way for shoppers to get recommendations starting with either a wine or food.
What will success look like for yourselves and Albertsons from this partnership?
Increased shopper loyalty and sales, together with data intelligence on an optimised wine inventory. Of course, there are immediate labour savings as well.
Importantly, every wine and spirits operator can plug in our software for the same benefits, as we built our platform to scale the entire industry.
For those that don't know Preferabli what are the key differences about your advanced technology compared to other personalisation tools and services in the market?
Preferabli claims to have the most advanced AI-driven personalisation technology in the wine industry
Preferabli software works like a human expert at scale. We connect people to products on a 1:1 basis – one person at a time, one product at a time. Our recommendations are based on individual preferences, not crowdsourcing.
All Preferabli solutions use our proprietary database, the most comprehensive in the industry with hundreds of characteristics for millions of products.
Do you hope your work with Albertsons will allow you to work with other retail players?
We are currently working with many of the leading specialty and grocery retailers across the US and UK – across specialty and grocery retail, hospitality and travel, as well as on-demand consumer platforms. These early adopters are already enjoying the benefits of offering truly personalised experiences by simply plugging in our software.
What other short and medium-term plans do you have for Preferabli and your advanced learning technology?
After many years of building Preferabli Sensorial AI℠, we are now coming of age. The industry understands how important truly personalised experiences are to their customers. Our software is being deployed across key platforms across the US and UK right now, across the industry supply chain.
Stay tuned for more major new announcements in 2025.
* You can find out more about Preferabli and the personalisation services it offers at its website here.
* Preferabli is a commercial partner to The Buyer.
