Pricewatch Group, the family-owned and operated independent group of forecourts and convenience stores located across Sussex, is celebrating its second annual anniversary with leading food waste reduction app provider Gander.
Since launching the Gander app in its stores in the autumn of 2021, Pricewatch has successfully marketed and sold 169,000 reductions through the Gander app with 120,000 user interactions already identified.
Claire Goddard, marketing manager at Pricewatch, said: “Investing in retail technology has had an extremely positive impact on our stores’ shopper behaviour. Previously, our sell-through rate was 57% but since adopting Gander, our sell-through rate has increased to 86%, a huge increase of 51% with no other changes made in store.
“As food prices have increased over the past two years, the Gander platform has really helped shoppers in our area manage their food bills. We’ve seen how some have had to change the way they shop and now save money by spending it on reduced food. This has helped us promote ourselves as a value retailer among our customers.”
Gander uses real-time technology to highlight reduced-to-clear food items in stores. It has the ability to reach thousands of people in the vicinity of a store, allowing shoppers to drop in and pick up a great price on selected products while enabling retailers to reduce their food waste at the same time.
“As well as displaying reduced-to-clear food products in real time, Gander automatically removes sold items from the live feed of all in-store reductions. This is a huge benefit because it means our shoppers using the app are never disappointed when they reach our stores,” said Goddard.
“We see our stores regularly selling over 86% of our reduced food, which means the more people see the products available on Gander, the more they come in to store and buy them.
“We have made a commitment to reduce food waste and increase recycling within our business. Since working with Gander, we have seen how this has helped improve our margins while also supporting our local community.
“Reducing food waste also has a huge impact on the environment and its positive effect cannot be ignored. We have saved 177 tonnes of CO2 in two years – that’s the equivalent of 177 hot air balloons across the sky.
“The app has been brilliant, and I would urge any retailer looking to change their shoppers buying patterns to invest in it. It has really helped us reduce food waste and become a more sustainable business while allowing us to connect with our local customers from the comfort of their home,” explained Goddard.
The Gander app integrated seamlessly with EDGEPoS, the epos system Pricewatch uses.
Stacey Williams, head of customer engagement and business development at Gander, said: “We are proud to partner with Pricewatch and we are delighted that our app technology is helping consumers in Sussex.
“As a leading forecourt and convenience store operation, it is exciting to see how well Pricewatch has adopted the technology. We look forward to working with Claire and the team well into the future so they can achieve their goals to reduce food waste and support local consumers to maximise their shopping budgets.”
