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Heather Paquette, Vice President of the Retail Innovation Center of Excellence for Retail Business Services – the services company of Ahold Delhaize USA – is leading a team that’s helping the local brands of Ahold Delhaize USA blaze new trails. 

In a recent interview with InnoLead, Heather discussed how Retail Business Services is supporting the implementation of new technologies and strategies to keep the brands at the forefront of innovation.  

“We pay close attention to the top opportunities our company and our brands are seeking to pursue, as well as the top challenges they are seeking to overcome. Improving the customer experience, improving the associate experience, and identifying ways to operate more efficiently are key objectives,” Heather said. “We know, for example, that if we create a really awesome experience for store associates, they will be able to create a better experience for customers. So, we look for technologies and solutions that might help eliminate frustrating or repetitive tasks, so associates can spend more time interacting with customers.” 

Those innovations include partnering with the Venture Café in Cambridge, Mass., to launch the Seed Immersion Program, implementing frictionless checkout technology – such as the Lunchbox, an entirely frictionless storefront – and installing digital shelf labels.  

“In the end, there will always be new, cool, shiny things that we could help our partners bring to life in stores,” Heather said. “But we’re really here to help our brands achieve their goals by implementing new solutions that create measurable value.”