Ocado Personalizes Online Shopping Based on Dietary Needs

U.K.-based online grocer Ocado is launching a new functionality on Ocado.com that allows customers to easily shop based on dietary and lifestyle needs. The Food Profile feature is powered by Canadian tech startup Foodmaestro.

In its “Empty Aisles: The Grocery E-Commerce Shopability Audit” study, Chicago-based Label Insight revealed a considerable gap between consumer needs and the online shopping experience: 64% of online shoppers surveyed said that they’re making purchases for a diet or other health-related program, 55% cited allergies or intolerances as influencing the way that they shop, and 53% admitted that it’s challenging to ensure a product meets the goals of their diet or health regime.

With Ocado’s latest functionality, customers can simply set up a personalized Food Profile to quickly and accurately find the products that meet their personal dietary needs. A list of 15 allergies and intolerances are covered within the new functionality, including celery, egg, soy, wheat, fish, sulfites, tree nuts and lupin.

“The launch of Food Profiles demonstrates our continued commitment to making Ocado the best place to shop,” said Laura Harricks, chief customer officer at Ocado. “This feature on Ocado.com allows customers with dietary needs to customize their shop so they can see the full range of what they are able to eat within their own specific dietary requirements. We are confident that this feature will save customers time whilst shopping online and give them confidence to try new products.”

Toronto-based Foodmaestro is a data platform that serves retailers and CPGs across Europe, the United Kingdom and North America, accelerating the companies’ digital strategies by delivering improved search and consumer personalization. Foodmaestro processes more than 14 million product attributes, 300,000 search requests and 6 million product validations in real time each day. 

Based in the United Kingdom, Ocado Retail Ltd is a joint venture between Marks & Spencer Group and Ocado Group. It is responsible for Ocado.com and Ocado Zoom. With more than 625,000 active customers, the online supermarket offers its 625,000-plus active customers a range of more than 49,000 products.