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How Wakefern Uses Off-Pack Data to Serve Wellness-Driven Shoppers

By transforming product packaging into a source of structured, searchable data, Wakefern Food Corp. is helping health-conscious shoppers find items that align with their specific wellness goals, both in-store and online.

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Shoppers today aren’t just looking for food—they’re looking for alignment with their wellness goals. According to NielsenIQ research shared at the session, 69% of American consumers say they’re willing to pay more to eat healthy, and 62% cite healthfulness as a key driver of food and beverage purchases. For retailers like Wakefern Food Corp, who has a stable of its own brands, this presents both an opportunity and a challenge: helping shoppers navigate the aisle and the app to find products that meet their needs.

“Customers are looking for items that help them live their lifestyle,” said Jessica Moorhead, data governance manager at Wakefern. “They want to make informed choices, especially when it comes to health.”

To meet this demand, Wakefern has built a robust data governance framework—one that turns packaging content into structured, searchable, and shoppable information.

From paper to pack-driven data

Wakefern’s data transformation started with a familiar pain point: unreliable manual input. “We used to create items using paper forms,” Moorhead explained. “It was prone to errors, delays, and inconsistencies.”

Wakefern moved toward more automated systems, starting with ingestion from the Global Data Synchronization Network (GDSN), then adding image validation, and ultimately adopting a fully automated process with NielsenIQ Brandbank. Today, all new items require Brandbank digital content before they can be entered into Wakefern’s system.

This shift enables Wakefern to extract validated information directly from packaging and use that data across both e-commerce and physical stores.

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