While Unilever has been one of the companies that has always been at the forefront of consumer trends, over the last few years, the company has also been silently digitizing the retail ecosystem of Bangladesh at scale.
With the vision of developing digitally-savvy retailers in the country together with a data and science-based customer ecosystem, Unilever has rolled out multiple experimentations.
- A B2B app for retailers called Lever Bazar which enables retailers the flexibility of ordering Unilever products anytime, anywhere with fulfillment the next day to avoid out-of-stock scenarios while enhancing their product knowledge.
- Digitizing the shopper’s journey with Project Turing, inspired by the world of ecommerce and to bring shoppers under the digitization umbrella. With the help of AI and utilizing OCR technology, handwritten data from shopping memos can be translated into structured data for remarketing to specific shoppers based on their previous purchase habits.
- Structuring data with Project Ray, where an AI model can translate pictures of the trade environment into structured data. This allows automation of display checks and measurement of share of shelf that can then allow manufacturers to plan for store-specific intervention to drive the relevant brands
- Ensuring ease of access to capital by partnering with financial institutions to provide retail financing to micro-entrepreneurs, digitizing the onboarding, loan disbursement and repayment process.
Ultimately, through embracing analytics to expand coverage and build service efficiency, Unilever is striving to create a digital retail ecosystem that can be the flagbearer of the Smart Bangladesh vision.
