Find out how the French retail giant is revolutionising its product media management with the help of artificial intelligence. From the automation of quality control to real-time broadcasting across all channels, go behind the scenes of an ambitious digital transformation.
An innovative project that promises :
Curious to see how AI can revolutionise your media management? Read the full article and discover Intermarché's secrets for boosting online sales!
Intermarché, France's leading supermarket chain, has decided to step up a gear when it comes to managing its media. A must-have digital transformation to stay one step ahead.
Mathieu Halbert, Repository Product & Media PO at Intermarché and member of the GS1 France Standardisation Committee, takes us through this ambitious project.
It all started with an observation: ‘At Intermarché, media management was lagging behind. Keepeek wasn't being used to its full potential’ admits Mathieu. The quality of visuals for leaflets and e-commerce was no longer up to scratch, with a direct impact on sales.
With hundreds of thousands of product references and constantly changing visuals, manual media management is no longer an option. ‘When we have 3,000 to 4,000 visuals to process every day, we can't manage that manually. We have more than 200,000 product files referenced, with 2 to 3 visuals per product. And each product changes every month, if not every year... The big problem is that we've automated a lot, but there's no one to check and validate the images before they're distributed.’
AI has emerged as the ideal solution. ‘We don't have the human resources to do it. AI makes it possible to detect errors and automatically validate visuals, to distinguish the good from the bad’ explains Mathieu. Numerous use cases have been identified beyond the media: organic certificates, user documents, etc. ‘We're clearly going to increase our use of the Keepeek solution with AI.’
At Intermarché, we like to be ahead of the game: ‘We operate in “early adopter” mode. We like to be ahead of the game. The first to speak are right. If you want to move forward, you have to take up your pilgrim's staff’. And Keepeek has proved to be the ideal tool for exploiting the full potential of AI. ‘Keepeek is way ahead of the market in terms of functionality. The advantage is that we have follow-up with top-notch teams and highly responsive support. We're growing together, with everyone contributing their bit to the edifice’ says Mathieu.
But before embarking on AI, Intermarché wants to deploy the GS1 standard. ‘In this famous project, we want to introduce AI, improve quality and implement standards. We need everyone to speak the same language’.
GS1 is a global organisation that develops and maintains standards for commercial exchanges, particularly in the mass retail sector. These standards cover various aspects such as product identification (barcodes and soon the QR Code), product data synchronisation, traceability, EDI, etc.
For Intermarché, adopting GS1 standards is an essential prerequisite before embarking on AI. ‘It's essential if we are to have high-quality data that is structured and shared by all the players involved. GS1 is working with us on these issues. They are also working with Truffaut. As we also sell plants, we need to standardise our supplier data.’
In concrete terms, Intermarché launched a digital transformation plan 3 years ago with the deployment of the GS1 standard across all product categories:
In each case, Intermarché is using GS1 standards. This major project will enable Intermarché to lay solid foundations for its AI project.
Did you know that Keepeek was also a GS1 France partner? Find out more about our membership announcement!
The most promising use case for AI at Intermarché: media quality control. ‘We want to set up a rating system with AI, based on an aggregate confidence rate’, explains Mathieu. ‘If we're at 100%, we're in. If not, we go through manual validation. The AI will help us validate the name, detect that it's a front image, that it's the right product... Plus a technical verification system (white background, transparency, size)’.
AI will also enable automatic recognition of labels (organic, PDO/AOC, Nutriscore, etc.). ‘We want a regulatory control solution based on OCR and AI to complement the product sheet’. This will ensure continuous compliance, without any manual effort.
Another major advance is the integration of key metadata directly into the visuals. ‘We're talking about GTINs, labelling, allergens and so on. This information is no longer conveyed by the product sheet but directly by the image. The aim is to have a standard wording for everyone’.
But beware: for AI to be effective, you need data of sufficient quantity and quality and a certain degree of consistency. A real challenge when you're managing an XXL catalogue!
For Intermarché, Keepeek is more than just a DAM. ‘It's the trusted source for the media,’ insists Mathieu. ‘All the media that come out of it must be beyond reproach.
The tool is deployed on a large scale: from the food industry to Bricomarché (3rd largest player in the market), via the Communications Department, which uses it as a secure EDM to distribute its content externally. ‘It's a simple, high-performance tool for sharing documents with our partners in total security’.
‘For traditional products such as strawberries, tomatoes or pain au chocolat, we have our generic visuals in our in-house PIM so that they go into the Keepeek DAM. The DAM also sends images to our PIM. However, if users want more images, they have to connect to the image database. The PIM is the product and the DAM is the media. The two need to be linked, each with its own basic data’.
To industrialise the management of product media, Intermarché is currently relying on Salsify, a Supplier Data Platform connected to Keepeek. ‘Our suppliers upload their visuals to Salsify, which is connected to Keepeek. By the end of the year, we'll be able to automatically retrieve the media (PDFs, safety data sheets, instructions for use, etc.). Soon, we'll also be able to integrate videos thanks to a new standard. To collect all the data, we use a GS1-certified and therefore interoperable catalogue, Salsify (formerly Alkemics), which enables all the manufacturers to feed us data from their own solutions (Equadis, ATGP, Agena, Syndigo, Tx2, etc.)."
But Intermarché already has an eye on the future, with a future PIM project based around Akeneo to manage the e-commerce back office (Drive), and already in place at Bricomarché. This will further streamline the exchange of product and media data.
This seamless integration will enable processes to be automated as far as possible. ‘We see DAM as a black box. The merchandising and e-commerce teams connect via other platforms to access the media’, explains Mathieu. ‘We're also a producer. We want users to add images using Keepeek's table functionality with a dedicated workflow.’
‘The aim is to make the production and distribution of our data and media as fluid as possible. The key to this is impeccable quality, thanks to Keepeek's AI. ‘It's the secret to drastically reducing our time-to-market and boosting productivity!
Intermarché is known as a major player in the mass retail sector. But it is also an industrial group, Agromousquetaires, comprising 56 industrial sites in France, 15 fishing vessels and 200 sailors (France's leading shipowner), 20 logistics sites and more than 15,000 partner farmers.
Today, the media for private label products are deposited on Sharepoints, networks, etc. Keepeek is also supporting the transformation of this division with the creation of a DAM dedicated to private label brands in order to collect, store and then distribute them in complete confidence.
Retailers, who are the main consumers of images, will also benefit from advances in AI. ‘On their mobiles, they have the media supplied by Keepeek. We have 3,000 shops. Tomorrow, they'll be looking for organic certificates in the event of an inspection, the dangerousness level of products for storage and so on. Today, they're picking them up left and right, the old-fashioned way, with no structure.’
As well as tagging and automatically describing resources, AI opens up a host of new possibilities, such as clipping images for marketplaces and detecting duplicates. These are all time-consuming tasks that teams will be able to offload and concentrate on creating value.
With high-quality, standardised media distributed in real time across all channels, Intermarché will be able to offer a fluid, personalised shopping experience. The secret to boosting online sales and building consumer loyalty!
With Keepeek and AI, Intermarché is giving itself the means to achieve its ambitions: industrialising the management of its product media, automating processes, ensuring impeccable quality... A pioneering and ambitious project that will revolutionise the day-to-day work of our teams and enhance the customer experience. The result: increased productivity and reduced time-to-market. Next stage: finalising the roll-out of the GS1 media standard and finalising the AI project to automate media quality control! One thing is clear: with Keepeek's AI, Intermarché has everything it needs to succeed in its bid for large-scale media management. It's a revolution that's only just begun, and one that promises many surprises.
Mathieu Halbert is Repository Product & Media PO at Intermarché and a member of the GS1 Standardisation Committee. Passionate about new technologies and innovation, he is one of the links in the chain's digital transformation. He works hand in hand with major players such as Keepeek to revolutionise product media management.
His credo: @The Right Data @The Right Moment @The Right Place.
Would you like to find out more about product media management with Keepeek? Read Auchan's testimonial!
