The impact of COVID-19 is changing the traditional way end consumers make purchases, moving to new channels such as e-commerce, home delivery services, and buy online, picking up in store, among others.

That’s why Supermercados Internacionales HEB, also known as HEB México selected Blue Yonder®, the world leader in digital supply chain and omni-channel commerce fulfillment. HEB México will utilize Blue Yonder’s warehouse management solution to continue fulfilling its promise to its customers: keeping the lowest prices, having the high-quality products, and, above all, offering quality service.

HEB México started in Texas 115 years ago and opened its first location in Mexico in 1997. HEB, short for Howard Edward Butt Grocery Company, has approximately 345 stores and more than 95,000 employees. While the company only has two decades of presence in Mexico, it already has 71 stores located in the states of Nuevo León, Tamaulipas, Coahuila, San Luis Potosí, Guanajuato, Querétaro, and Aguascalientes, employing more than 15,500.

Blue Yonder partner Netlogistik will drive this project with a goal to implement in Q1 2021. With Blue Yonder’s warehouse management solution, HEB México is augmenting its existing footprint with industry-leading supply chain execution capabilities, which will be focused on merchandise processes, demand planning, replenishment, and category management.

With the current COVID-19 pandemic environment, e-commerce transactions at HEB México have been growing rapidly in the last 10 months, even more than in the last five years. For this reason, HEB México required a more powerful way to manage the demand for e-commerce products through the dark warehouse.

“We have chosen Blue Yonder warehouse management solutions for two reasons: first, because it is the best solution in the market, and second, it is fully aligned with the current trend of the operation with dark warehouses allowing us to drive e-commerce order fulfillment from our warehouses and into the hands of shoppers,” Erick Ortega, Head of Information Systems at HEB México.

“This ‘uberization’ of electronic commerce, with companies acting as complementary services for grocery stores, is generating new rules to meet the demand of the final consumer and new processes to manage and optimize inventory in different channels. By utilizing our WMS, it allows HEB México the opportunity to manage demand, improve inventory and optimize operations in these dark stores. Through our supply chain solutions, Blue Yonder can help companies like HEB México to stay technologically ahead of the competition and show its leadership in the region,” said Juan Carlos Calderón, senior customer executive at Blue Yonder.