Elijah Savage

VP of Infrastructure, Engineering and Operations, Kroger

Headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, Kroger is one of the largest retailers in the United States. Kroger operates 2,750 grocery retail stores under various banner names. Shopping formats include supermarkets, seamless digital shopping, price-impact warehouse stores, low-price pharmacies, fuel centers, and multi-department stores that offer an expanded variety of national brand apparel and general merchandise.

A Fortune 100 company, Kroger serves 11 million customers every day across 35 states and Washington D.C.

Supernova Award Category: 
Next-Generation Customer Experience
The Problem: 

Kroger is building the “store of the future,” which delivers a seamless, simple, and enjoyable shopping experience by embracing innovation to improve both customer experience and operational efficiency. Doing that requires the use of new, connected technologies and IoT devices – everything from electronic shelf labels, temperature and lighting sensors, to seamless experiences on the Kroger App and at checkout.
Every new in-store innovation creates fresh demand on Kroger’s wireless network, requiring them to find a new way to deliver wireless connectivity. This required simplified management, higher capacity and performance, installation in places like freezers where moisture and temperature are a challenge, and more.
Kroger aims to provide unparalleled customer experiences and solidify its position as the freshest retailer in the market, and a network upgrade was the route to delivering that world-class experience while proactively adapting to the evolving retail landscape.

The Solution: 

To build the “store of the future,” Kroger sought a network solution that offered advanced capabilities, easy technology integrations, artificial intelligence, and future-proof infrastructure. Kroger has thousands of physical stores across the US and relies on thousands more IoT devices. When looking to upgrade its network, they needed a more efficient and reliable way to manage those IoT devices. The goal was to create a network where, if there was a problem with temperature sensors in Kroger’s Decatur, Alabama store, the network admin located in Dayton, Ohio could quickly see, troubleshoot, and remediate the issue from a single management platform. With a cloud network integrated with AIOps capabilities, Kroger’s IT team can quickly identify the source of any issue and the best way to fix it immediately based on millions of data points and machine learning – rather than spending hours triangulating and identifying the root cause of the problem. 

The Results: 
  • By building a new network infrastructure to support their ambitious innovation goals, Kroger significantly improved company operations. The new wireless infrastructure provided increased bandwidth and capacity, supporting the growing number of connected devices and enhancing the overall digital experience for both customers and associates. The seamless connectivity facilitated the implementation of advanced digital services, such as electronic shelf labels and IoT sensors, which improved inventory tracking and operational efficiency. The centralized cloud management system simplified network management, reducing the IT workload and enabling quicker issue resolution. Overall, the new network infrastructure has positioned Kroger for future growth and innovation, ensuring they remain competitive in the retail industry.
    Some examples of Kroger’s consumer-facing innovations that are supported on its new network include:
  • Electronic shelf labeling that alerts store managers of shelving or storage issues, preventing food spoilage, waste and allowing for dynamic pricing
  • KroGo carts with built-in scales and cameras designed to improve the shopping experience and enable smart inventory management, supporting loss prevention
  • Stock locationing to improve daily store operations.
Metrics: 
  • Deployed world’s largest cloud-managed network – more than 75,000 wireless access points across Kroger’s stores.
  • With cloud management, Kroger now can recall up to 90 days of historical network analytics to better understand in-store usage, traffic patterns and customer activity.
  • Support for expansion of Ocado fulfillment centers that serve areas without direct access to stores
  • Implementing Electronic Shelf Label (ESL) technology system-wide has reduced costs associated with pricing activities
  • Supporting a consistent, multichannel experience. More than 90% of customer interactions with products on their website and app are enabled by personalization, nearly doubling the likelihood of a customer purchase.
The Technology: 

Kroger’s infrastructure is built on Extreme’s cloud-managed network solutions. This includes more than 75,000 Wi-Fi 6E access points, including unique form factors such as the AP 3000, which is able to function at low temperatures, including inside supermarket freezers. All of this is managed by ExtremeCloud™ IQ, a cloud-based network management platform that enables centralized control and visibility and incorporates AIOps technology that helps proactively manage the network

Disruptive Factor: 
  • Embracing technology and innovation, Kroger embarked on a transformative journey to revolutionize customer experience and operations. With a workforce of over 430,000 and serving millions of customers daily, Kroger's overarching goal was clear: to become the epitome of freshness within the grocery retail market. This freshness initiative sought to provide customers with fresh foods and convenient offerings, whether through digital platforms or in-store experiences. Kroger's journey toward becoming the freshest retailer in the market was built based on a commitment to innovation, operational excellence, and customer satisfaction – and network modernization became the foundation needed to reach this goal. Through its partnership with Extreme Networks, Kroger has not only met but exceeded its goals, achieving enhanced mobile device performance and seamless deployments across its many different store and facility locations, ultimately translating into delivering higher quality products to its customers. As Kroger continues its network rollout process and digital transformation journey, it remains dedicated to pushing boundaries and setting new industry standards for freshness and customer service.
Shining Moment: 

Kroger set the bar high for Extreme's deployment team, expecting stealthy implementation overnight without a trace. Every night, in 10 to 60 stores per week, networks were replaced without issue, ensuring minimal disruption to operations the next day. Thus far, the deployment program has not encountered a single major incident or downtime. The only trace the deployment teams left was connectivity so seamless that associates were baffled by how well their devices operated the next day.

About Kroger

At The Kroger Co., we are dedicated to our Purpose: To Feed the Human Spirit™. We are, across our family of companies nearly half a million associates who serve over 11 million customers daily through a seamless digital shopping experience and retail food stores, serving America through food inspiration and uplift, and creating #ZeroHungerZeroWaste communities by 2025.