Andrew Laudato, chief operating officer at The Vitamin Shoppe, disputed the perception that an omnichannel approach creates a situation where there can be potential competition between channels.
“Customers who shop across multiple channels are actually your best customers,” says Laudato. “We want our customers to shop when, where and how they want. It’s also another channel for individual customers to shop at different times during different parts of their trip.”
The company has built a retail ecosystem designed to support different stages of consumer behavior. For example, a shopper starting a new fitness routine might visit a physical store to consult with an in-house “health enthusiast” for customized advice, he said. Once a plan is established, those same customers may move to subscription-based replenishment or convenient e-commerce.
This flexible approach reflects broader changes in retail behavior, with consumers increasingly expecting seamless movement between physical and digital environments.
He said consumers now have access to a variety of purchase channels at Vitamin Shoppe, including traditional in-store shopping, in-store shipping, buy online at vitaminshoppe.com and pick up in store, same-day delivery with DoorDash, and even the ability to order in one store and pick up in another (“so we don’t have the same thing in every store”).
The company, which has about 650 retail stores across the United States, increasingly treats its stores as distribution nodes comparable to large e-commerce companies.
“If you think of each store not just as a retail store, but as a distribution hub, we have pretty good coverage of the United States,” he said.
BOSS (Buy Online, Ship from Store) allows the company to fulfill orders from store inventory even when distribution centers are out of stock, allowing The Vitamin Shoppe to compete more aggressively with Amazon by reducing delivery times.
“We like to say we can do it faster than Amazon,” he said.
The company sells outside its “four walls” through Amazon, and its private labels are also available through the Instacart app, Uber Eats app, and DoorDash.
“We have every conceivable way to achieve true omni. What do we mean by omni? It’s ‘many,’ many channels, each unique to the customer’s needs at the time,” Laudato said.
AI investments across operations, stores, and customer experience
Artificial intelligence is expanding its role across organizations, from internal productivity to customer-facing tools.
At the corporate level, Laudato said, the implementation of Microsoft Copilot has increased employee productivity, while also incorporating AI into analytics and inventory management, moving toward a machine learning-driven model.
As NutraIngredients recently reported, The Vitamin Shoppe has begun experimenting with AI-powered customer engagement tools. A prime example is the “Shop Advisor” installed in stores in New York City. Customers interact with a touchscreen interface to receive product recommendations and educational content.
The company plans to expand this capability by equipping store associates with AI-enabled tools on iPads, but with an emphasis on human intervention.
“At The Vitamin Shoppe, we spend a lot of time, energy and money educating each and every health enthusiast on our products and knowledge, but as we all know in this industry, things are changing a lot. No one person can know everything. It’s very difficult, and we’re doing it well, but we’re using AI to accelerate it and make this data readily available to health enthusiasts, who then apply it to their own knowledge and common sense to advise their customers,” said Laudato.
The Future: Personalized Health and Agent Commerce
Looking ahead, Laudato said he is optimistic about the industry’s outlook, as people are becoming more concerned about their health and expects that trend to continue.
“Our entire industry is trending upwards,” he said. “I really like the term healthspan. It’s not just about living longer, it’s about living better and longer. I think the more education there is, the more consumers will become more knowledgeable. Consumers are already more knowledgeable, and that will continue. I expect there will be a lot of innovation in products, so I think the ingredients, forms, and methods will continue to improve. This is exciting for all of us.”
And Laudato believes agent commerce will be huge in five to 10 years. “People are going to have individual AI agents, so for retailers, they need to make sure their content is syndicated properly. I think agent AI will become a normal part of our lives. I’m personally excited about it.”
Watch the video for the full interview.
#Vitamin #Shoppe #COO #talks #omnichannel #opportunities