Coborn’s Expands Number of Stores Offering Interactive Digital Circular

Solution comes from Birdzi and Ideal by Design House

1/19/2023

Coborn’s and Hornbacher’s will display the Ideal by Design House circular on the banners’ mobile and web apps.

Regional grocery store chain Coborn’s and its Hornbacher’s banners are deploying a revolutionary new weekly ad circular solution from Birdzi and Ideal by Design House across all of their stores. Previously, the solution had been implemented at 12 Coborn’s stores.

Ideal by Design House offers grocers an interactive digital circular that aims to reach targeted audiences within the retailer’s geographic area. The outreach, driven by media buys, delivers measurable in-store traffic improvements. Ideal by Design House ensures that the digital circular has all the benefits of a print circular, plus videos, shopping lists, recipes, coupons and sharing capabilities – all based on the most accurate analytic and visitation data available.

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Similarly, Birdzi enables grocers to personalize the deals within the digital circular via customer intelligence and detailed analytics. With its VISPER 2.0 solution, the entire deal is created for an individual customer, from the chosen product and the discount itself, to the fonts and overall presentation.

“At a time where inflation is impacting customer’s financial certainty, it’s important for retailers to increase the reach of personalized offers,” said Shekar Raman, CEO and co-founder of Iselin, N.J.-based Birdzi. “Our partnership with Design House is about meeting shoppers where they are and bringing personalization to the touchpoints they frequently use – like mobile apps – to simplify the shopping experience, encourage loyalty and drive digital engagement.”

Longtime Birdzi customer Coborn’s said that it has already seen notable improvements in customer loyalty after deploying VISPER 2.0 in August 2022. Now, Coborn’s and Hornbacher’s will display the Ideal by Design House circular on the banners’ mobile and web apps, both powered by earlier Birdzi integrations. The circular will feature personalized deals and promotions generated by VISPER 2.0.

“Coborn’s has developed an intelligent approach for their print-to-digital transformation,” said Adam Zimmerman, partner and SVP at Solon, Ohio-based Design House. “The Ideal by Design House platform is their first step, but they’ve created a seismic shift by enhancing this partnership with Birdzi. Adding personalization to an already engaging platform moves them so far down the field, it’s hard to imagine their competition ever catching up.”

In December, Hickory, N.C.-based Merchants Distributors LLC (MDI), a wholesale food distributor for independent grocers, made a marketing agreement with Ideal by Design House to allow the 600-plus grocery stores in 12 states serviced by MDI to access Ideal’s Retail Media Network and upgrade to dynamic digital circulars.

St. Cloud, Minn.-based Coborn’s Inc. is a 101-year-old employee-owned grocery retailer with nearly 10,000 employees and 66 grocery stores across Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin and Michigan under the Coborn’s Cash Wise Foods, Marketplace Foods and Hornbacher’s banners. Coborn’s also owns liquor, fuel and pharmacy locations. To support its 130 various retail business units, Coborn’s Inc. operates its own central bakery, dry cleaning facility and grocery distribution center. The company is No. 82 The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2022 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America.