How Albert Heijn Is Winning with Gen Z and Generative AI | Sjoerd Holleman Live at WRC 2025

Live from the Grand Ballroom Foyer and the VusionGroup Podcast Studio at World Retail Congress 2025, Omni Talk catches up with Sjoerd Holleman, SVP and Executive Board Member of Albert Heijn, to talk digital grocery, personalization, and why the company calls itself a “food tech” leader. Holleman reveals how the grocer balances the needs of 4.7M unique weekly customers across generations—leveraging everything from GenAI assistants to a booming loyalty app ecosystem.

⏱ Key Moments:

0:33 – Meet Sjoerd Holleman: Background and Albert Heijn overview
1:14 – Albert Heijn as a “food tech” company with 125,000 employees
2:54 – WRC first impressions and why it’s worth attending
3:22 – Panel recap: How customer behaviors are shifting with age and social trends
4:35 – The impact of aging populations and dietary needs on grocery innovation
5:17 – Albert Heijn’s 12% e-commerce business and true omnichannel approach
5:45 – Scaling the app from 200K to 5M active users
6:51 – Why app-first personalization is the key to future loyalty
7:46 – Inside their new GenAI-powered shopping assistant
8:31 – User adoption across demographics, including older shoppers
9:47 – What’s next: Deeper personalization, content orchestration, and loyalty data
10:30 – How Albert Heijn is preparing for hyper-personalized, household-specific experiences
10:42 – Final thoughts on digital transformation and data ethics

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