UNFI Launches First Wholesale Food Industry Marketplace in North America
Mirakl, the industry’s first and most advanced enterprise marketplace SaaS platform, today announced that United Natural Foods, Inc. (UNFI) has launched Community Marketplace by UNFI, the first wholesale food marketplace in North America. Powered by the Mirakl Marketplace Platform, the new marketplace strengthens UNFI’s position as North America’s premier food wholesaler by increasing scale, reach and selection, with a unique focus on hyperlocal producers and products.
UNFI is the largest publicly traded wholesale distributor of natural, organic and specialty foods in the U.S. and Canada and curates and supplies more than 250,000 items to 30,000 retailers. With the sharp acceleration of eCommerce throughout the last year, wholesalers like UNFI have worked overtime to support suppliers and retailers in the rapidly evolving foodscape. The company saw significant growth in 2020, due in large part to growth in demand for healthy food products, and the marketplace launch is well-timed to further address and meet those demands. The new wholesale food marketplace will uniquely position UNFI through eCommerce and the underlying power of Mirakl’s technology to expand their customer base and product offerings, meet existing customers’ needs through wider assortments and ultimately increase gross merchandise value (GMV).
“The past year has underscored the importance of expanding product offerings online and creating new ways to meet evolving consumer trends and demands,” said Tom Kraus, vice president of e-commerce at UNFI. “With the scale, agility and operational efficiencies that businesses need to expand product offerings and meet consumer needs, Mirakl will be indispensable as UNFI looks to provide more hyperlocal products online faster to the retailers using our platform.”
Community Marketplace by UNFI will be integrated into UNFI’s existing eCommerce website, UNFI EasyOptions, to increase overall product assortments and improve customer experience, while also maximizing analytics and operational intelligence capabilities. UNFI’s expanded marketplace will feature the streamlined vendor onboarding required to open up opportunities for emerging and hyperlocal small- and medium-sized business (SMB) suppliers. On the back end, the improved marketplace will streamline administration and technological processes to make operations more efficient for supplier management teams.
“The grocery and wholesale industry has been a focal point of the seismic digital and eCommerce evolutions of the past year, and leading companies like UNFI have been working overtime to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to eCommerce offerings,” said Adrien Nussenbaum, co-founder and U.S. CEO, Mirakl. “As the first major North American food wholesaler to offer such a marketplace, we’re excited to help UNFI set the standard for marketplace operations, not just in grocery and wholesale but across the eCommerce landscape.”
Strategic commerce agency McFadyen Digital served as the systems integration partner on the Community Marketplace by UNFI, working closely with Mirakl to ensure on time development and rapid deployment of the large-scale wholesale food marketplace.
“Through our partnership with Mirakl, we’ve been able to combine our industry expertise to deliver a world-class enterprise platform that helps marketplaces like UNFI’s launch, scale and evolve,” said Tom McFadyen, president and CEO of McFadyen Digital. “It’s always exciting to work with innovative organizations and we look forward to seeing how this new UNFI marketplace connects their communities and customers in new ways.”
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