Celebrating Our Award-Winning Partner, Diana Barr, Coborn’s

We are thrilled to share that our friend and partner Diana Barr, senior director of e-commerce at Coborn’s, was recently named a 2024 Woman of Excellence by the Path to Purchase Institute!

Diana was recognized in the Innovator category for her 20 years of work on the frontlines of retail’s shift to new technologies and personalized solutions. Birdzi is extremely proud to have worked with Diana and Coborn’s for nearly a decade.

Diana’s passion for blending consumer psychology with data-driven strategies to develop engaging omnichannel campaigns is second to none. Congratulations, Diana, for this impressive honor!

Over the years, Birdzi and Coborn’s collaborative partnership has evolved through many phases, and it highlights the success that is possible with a dedicated, careful and customer-first approach to loyalty and engagement. Here’s how we’ve built this successful engagement, together:

Building a New Loyalty Program From the Ground Up

Back in 2016, Coborn’s lacked a comprehensive loyalty program to drive stronger customer engagement across its in-store and digital channels. Attracted by the omnichannel approach that Birdzi could enable, Diana and Coborn’s turned to Birdzi to help launch a new loyalty rewards program and increase engagement on digital channels.

Birdzi’s and Coborn’s partnership began with the MORE Rewards program, which drove customer loyalty through a dedicated guest-facing website, mobile shopping app and personalized emails. After developing this new loyalty program touchpoint, Coborn’s witnessed a significant increase in customer retention, trips per month and spend per month.

But this was only the beginning.

Enter AI-Driven, Personalized Customer Engagement

Over the years, Diana has consistently identified opportunities in which innovation can and will improve the relationships Coborn’s develops with its community of shoppers.

With Birdzi, Diana has spearheaded Coborn’s integration of artificial intelligence technology to personalize shopper communications and relationships, allowing the brand to cater to its customers on a deeper level.

Diana and Coborn’s became one of the first to pilot Birdzi’s VISPER 1.0 solution in 2020 on the heels of successful MORE Rewards program results.

By tailoring messaging and offers on an individual basis, instead of generalizing marketing tactics across the entire consumer base, Coborn’s shoppers have felt more seen and understood. With AI, Coborn’s can better serve shoppers’ specific needs with unrivaled promptness and efficiency.

More recently, Coborn’s has implemented Birdzi’s latest product, VISPER 2.0, across all of the retailer’s banners. VISPER 2.0, powered by AI, enables grocers to create personalized promotions with no manual input, so every element can be specifically customized to individual shoppers.

The promoted products are automatically selected from across the entire Coborn’s catalog, as opposed to a preset list of vendor deals, and paired with the images, text and discount most likely to engage the shopper. This level of personalization is rare in the grocery industry, and we’re proud to give Coborn’s a leg-up on the competition and a unique selling point for shoppers.

The Proof Is in the Pudding

Birdzi’s partnership with Diana and Coborn’s has demonstrated undeniable, tangible results for the Minnesota-based grocery, convenience and liquor retailer:

• Among Coborn’s shoppers who redeemed coupons created by VISPER 2.0, 3% either increased their loyalty tier or stayed the same during the trial, with 33.1% migrating upwards.
• Among shoppers who did not redeem a coupon, 74% either stayed in the same loyalty tier or migrated up with only 25% of shoppers experiencing the latter.
• Coborn’s has witnessed a 6% improvement in retaining or growing shopper segments compared to the control group.
• Coborn’s also realized an almost 32% improvement in migrating shoppers upwards across loyalty tiers.

Coborn’s has now implemented VISPER 2.0 at all of its 120+ locations. Now, Coborn’s customers – as well as its subsidiary Hornbacher’s – receive promotions from VISPER 2.0 campaigns twice every month. The technology has improved customer relations and heightened the in-store experience for loyal shoppers.

Where Success Lies, Recognition Follows

With these impressive results in mind, it’s no surprise that Diana and Coborn’s have become established, recognized leaders in retail innovation. In fact, Diana was also named a Chain Store Age Top Woman in Retail Tech in 2021, too.

Please join us in congratulating our friend, Diana Barr, once more for these remarkable achievements and industry recognition. Birdzi is proud to have played a role in this success, and we look forward to many more years of collaborative innovation with Coborn’s as a trusted partner.

If you’d like to learn more about how Birdzi’s industry-leading customer engagement and personalization ecosystem delivers remarkable results like these, reach out to us today to get started.