Under a wide-ranging deal announced Tuesday, the partners will create a customized natural and organic product hierarchy that will provide a comprehensive view of Whole Foods' product categories, including ingredient level attributes.
While Whole Foods has a vendor portal enabling suppliers to track their performance, this deal will provide a far more comprehensive picture of what is happening at the chain, said the partners.
“In addition to allowing the company and its supplier partners to make faster and more informed data-decisions to drive growth, the comprehensive and fully integrated hierarchical data will yield a deeper understanding of customer preferences. With this deeper understanding of our customers, Whole Foods Market and its supplier partners will excel at new product development, cementing the grocer's position as a trend leader in quality and differentiated product assortments.”
Nielsen will provide measurement and marketing analytics for all US Whole Foods stores, in addition to developing the customized hierarchy, said Rob Hill, executive vice president of retail services at Nielsen:
"This hierarchy that will be opened up to the supplier community for the first time, is a foundation for an expanded analytics and consumer-centric engagement that we are proud to be working with Whole Foods Market and the industry on. In addition, our focus on health and wellness, advanced data reporting and q vast suite of products and services will enable Whole Foods Market to stay on top of changing trends, emerging trends and consumer habits within the grocery space."