New York blockchain company GNY is providing N1 Supermarkets in Switzerland with machine-learning technology to implement customer engagement and rewards.

N1, the official partner of the Intermaché Group in Switzerland, is opening its first two stores in downtown Geneva this summer, with plans to expand throughout Switzerland over the next five years. The partnership will leverage GNY’s patent-pending decentralised machine-learning engine to bring N1 customers a personalised retail experience and a blockchain-powered rewards system, and help N1 meet its sustainability goals by using machine learning to optimise the store’s supply chain and reduce waste.

N1 wants to providing its customers relevant, personalised and timely communications to allow them to get the most satisfaction and value out of their shops as possible. However, none of these goals can come at the expense of personal data privacy which is why it selected GNY to be its retail partner. The GNY system is designed to work with completely anonymised customer data. Shoppers can expect to receive communications, offers and promotions that are just for them and reflect how they shop and what they most enjoy.

GNY is also bringing a crypto-based rewards system to the retailer experience, simultaneously launching the N1 token that will power all rewards and promotions offered by the tech-forward retailer.

“GNY as a network opens up operators’ capability to distribute coins according to data driven business logic,” said Richard Jarritt, chief R&D officer of GNY. “By opening up this distribution powered by machine learning and combining with blockchain-backed security, you achieve a trustworthy and cost-efficient connection to customers that can reinforce positive behaviour.”

Finally, integrating machine learning into the retailer’s operation helps achieve sustainability goals. Machine learning excels on picking up on patterns related to hundreds of variables that are too complicated for the human brain to perceive. The result is a more sensitive and predictive view into the pipeline which can inform more efficient supply chains and a marked reduction in food and energy waste.

This spells fresher goods for the customer with little waste by the retailer.

This effort by N1 becomes increasingly important as the production, transport and storage of food is estimated to account for approximately a quarter of all global emissions.

By decentralising machine-learning functionality through the blockchain, GNY is transforming how machine learning can be deployed, shared, monetised and evolved. Instead of a top-down innovation, GNY is building a democratised platform that can be expanded and shaped by the community that uses it.

Intermaché, the European grocery giant, had €84bn sales last year and this is its exclusive backed project entry into the Swiss market.

“We are proud to open the two first Partenaire Intermaché Shops in Geneva this summer,” said Aurélien Lépinoy, CEO of N1 Supermarkets. “As the Swiss expectations are very high, we want to provide our customers the best shopping experience ever through the app we are co-building with GNY. We want our customers to feel at home by being better understood.”