London, 9th April 2015 – Eat 17, the family run grocer, has partnered with Market Hub Technologies to use digital pricing and analytics at their flagship Walthamstow village store. The deal will see Eat 17 use Market Hub’s pricing analytics technology and Electronic Shelf Labels (ESL), the first Spar store in the UK to do so. The technology will give Eat 17’s customers a better and more personalised shopping experience by using data to ensure their favourite products are always in-stock; and by analysing local shopping habits to target specific products to the Walthamstow area. Staff will spend less than pricing and more time giving their valued shoppers the best customer service.

For Eat 17, Market Hub will deliver a cutting–edge toolbox of technology, normally the preserve of mega-retailers, to provide advanced real-time data analytics on local consumers giving the management immediate intelligence on what customers want and how to competitively price it with confidence. The deal is fundamentally driven towards helping Eat 17 increase efficiency and allow retailers to analyse and act on their data in a complicated non-technical way thereby helping the store to differentiate itself. The aim of Market Hub’s technology is re-invigorate the UK high street by helping all retailers think about and create their unique differentiator.

Commenting on the deal with Spar Roy Horgan, CEO and Founder of Market Hub said: “Without having reams of data and people analysing sales in central offices it is tough for small, retailers to compete against the large chains. Market Hub looks to deliver the technological kit to small retailers so they know the true market value of something and can offer consumers what they want. Eat 17 have always been ahead of technological developments and the adaptation of digital pricing and analytics will help other retailers to think about pricing efficiency.”

James Brundle, Founder of Eat 17’s Walthamstow Village Spar added: “Retail is a tough business and for retailers to flourish they need to offer customers not only value but also a differentiator to make them unique. This with Market Hub is about making us unique and ensuring that our customers continue to have a reason to come to our Spar store and nowhere else.”