AI Case Study
Gousto, a British meal kit retailer, grows customer base by 700% by using machine learning to forecast demand and personalise recommendations
Gousto, a meal kit retailer, uses a recommendation system similar to that of Netflix to show personalised recipe recommendations to customers. They use machine learning to forecast customer orders. They were not only able to grow their customer base to 7 times, but also reduce food wastage and streamline supply chain process by predicting demand accurately.
Industry
Consumer Goods And Services
Food Beverage And Drugs
Project Overview
"Three areas in which Gousto currently use AI are: Personalisation, Forecasting and Warehouse Optimisation. Combined, these allow us to give our customers a better service than competitors, while also helping reduce food waste to a level far lower than any supermarket.
Personalisation - AI (a similar algorithm used by Netflix) to show customers personalised recipe recommendations.
Forecasting: Using AI to eliminate food waste from supply chain whilst allowing customers to order what they want, when they want. The in-house machine-learning model produces daily customer order forecasts accurately."
Reported Results
According to the company:
* Streamlined operations - near zero waste
* 700% growth in customer base
Technology
Using machine learning Gousto understands customer tastes and preferences and changes over time to offer personalised recommendations:
"Each recipe has associated metadata (cuisine, cooking method, cooking time etc.) and ingredients, which are explored to gain a deep understanding of customer taste preferences. For example, random forest algorithm to predict the uptake of each recipe based on attributes such as cooking time, spice, protein type and cuisine... We cluster customers together according to different attributes like their favourite cuisine or how many people they’re cooking for."
Function
Marketing
Product Marketing
Background
"Gousto customers can order a box online and get it 72 hours later – the shortest lead time of any recipe kit company."
Benefits
Data
Customer feedback - reviews and ratings
Recipe metadata - cuisine, cooking method, cooking time, ingredients