By Mukundan Sivaraj · AIM Media House
Some of the most profitable categories in grocery, like custom cakes, catering trays, and event-driven bundles, have remained stubbornly difficult to digitize.
These orders require advance notice and coordination across multiple store divisions (think bakery, deli, floral, and general merchandise), each with its own inventory rules and fulfillment timelines.
As a result, they have long been handled through in-store conversations, phone calls, or fragmented online forms rather than standard e-commerce flows. Recent retail AI deployments are targeting these failure points.
Instead of focusing on browsing or content, retailers are applying AI to the mechanics that cause complex orders to break down. The aim is to remove the operational friction that prevents these purchases from being completed quickly and reliably online.
Albertsons Cos.’ new Celebrations platform offers an example of how that is being executed. Launched across the company’s banners, Celebrations consolidates custom cakes, floral, catering, décor, beverages, and related items into a single ordering experience.
Read more: Albertsons Wants AI Woven Into Every Part of the Grocery Business “We’re enhancing the shopping experience for our customers by adding the capability to plan entire celebrations with the same ease as ordering their weekly groceries,” said Jill Pavlovich, senior vice president of digital customer experience at Albertsons Cos.
AI and the Collapse of Decision Overhead What makes event-driven purchases difficult online is not their price or infrequency, but the number of decisions they impose. Customers must estimate quantities, choose themes, ensure items work together, account for preparation times, and align pickup or delivery windows.
Each step adds friction, and each unresolved dependency increases the likelihood that an order is delayed or abandoned.
Continue on AIM Media House