Grocery Shop Recap: Insights, Trends and Case Studies

The conference brought together many of the retail industry’s best and brightest newcomers as well as legacy brands and CPGs. With ecommerce exploding in the grocery sector it will be interesting to see whether some of these innovative concepts and themes come to fruition in the years to the come. The main message we took away was a seamless multi-channel shopping experience is no longer a luxury, but a necessity to succeed and be competitive in today’s market – or as you might say in Vegas, table stakes.

Marry their “bricks to clicks”

Brands must utilize eCommerce not as a silo function but an organizational muscle. At the same time, brands need to be weary of technical chauvinism. With all of the dynamics that come with digitization, brands need to employ more consumer empathy and transparency, so customers understand what their data is being used for.

The conference highlighted the need for retailers to marry their “bricks to clicks”, as referred to by several speakers. Customers are channel agnostic and expect a seamless experience. The path to conversion is different as consumers bounce back and forth from online and offline channels. The marriage of physical storefronts and online channels will increase the conversation and frequency rate of customers purchasing because it enhances and further eases the seamless shopping experience. Essentially, brands need an omni-channel platform that is centered on the customer, not simply the “multi-channel” approach of the past.

Nearly every brand says they are customer-centric however, one issue consistent across most companies is that they always want to sell to customers right now. Companies must understand that customers all have different trip lengths, and each engage in different channels, and as a result, companies need to move beyond only highlighting cheap goods to drive a quick sale. Customer centric means figuring out how to serve customers best, and not just trying to bend their will to their business.

Another point made clear is that when it comes to the digitization of their businesses, transparency is key. A prime example of a company that devours information, but is clear with its usage, is Stich Fix. Right up front, they let the customer know that the reason for all of their body metrics and tastes is to contour the clothing to them. Stich Fix understands that customers want access to everything they have to offer however they don’t want to take a tour of the fulfillment center. The small pieces of information collected help Stich Fix make the shopping experience better.

Advice and Insights from Top Retailers:

7-eleven:

• Technology, specifically AI (artificial intelligence), can be harnessed to improve personalized shopping
• Better product targeting is crucial experience
• First-party data can be used with applied AI targeting for sales, items, trends, e-commerce, in-store shopping, geographic data and more
• All parts of the business must be upgraded to better target consumers

Kroger:

• Utilize AI technology and data to create personalized shopping and a more seamless consumer experience
• Data can be used to create a personalized in-store shopping experience,
• Identify a personalized route for shoppers and provide real-time offers based on individual customer preferences.

Mondelez:

• Personalization will be a key for the next generation of consumers, especially for younger generations
• Consider how mobile devices can be leveraged to find disruption points during the consumption journey to build the consumer’s basket at relevant moments, improving sales

Mars Wrigley:

• Omnichannel solutions has enabled Mars Wrigley to break down organizational silos and improve business decision-making across multiple business units.
• It is essential to be responsible in formulating and collecting data insights, including through sticking to an AI code of conduct, protecting consumer privacy and security, collecting data ethically, providing transparency and explainable AI products
• Ensure the technology is supporting a test-and-learn mindset.

Procter & Gamble:

• Successful integration of the in-store shopping experience and the online shopping experience eases product search and discovery for consumers.
• In-store shelf provides more familiarity to consumers and is, for many, a more natural way to discover new products and substitutes, while the digital shelf offers speed and convenience, features dynamic aisles, and has many points of entry.

Meta:

• Mobile shopping can help create the interconnectivity required for a successful omnichannel experience.
• Not all products are profitable in the same way online and offline, and therefore there should be varied offerings across channels.
• Metaverse will change everything and will more effectively combine online and offline shopping through a greater focus on AR/VR in stores.

Continuous Innovation Case Studies:

DoorDash

Tony Xu, CEO at food-delivery company DoorDash, explored how the company is continuing to innovate and experiment to deliver growth. As consumers returned to more in-person shopping following the lifting of lockdowns, it was unclear how DoorDash would sustain growth. However, the number of customers purchasing groceries on DoorDash has doubled from a year ago, according to the company. Xu attributed this performance to the resilience of the food category, as well as DoorDash’s ambition to continue to add new retailers to the platform, including EG America, Giant Eagle, Raley’s and Sprouts Farmers Market. Additionally, DoorDash’s order density, with approximately 25 million monthly orders, has delivered high reliability and enabled lower costs. The company is continuing to explore and test new partnerships to “jointly build a product that works for everybody,” to enable continued growth at scale, Xu explained.

Casey’s

Darren Rebelez, President and CEO of convenience store chain Casey’s, explored how the company is harnessing digital innovation to achieve growth. Casey’s has approximately 2,400 locations in 16 Midwestern states, and many in rural areas with populations of fewer than 5,000 people. Just a few years ago, Casey’s lagged behind its competitors on digital innovation and was searching for ways to leverage digitalization to engage consumers. Since then, it has reinvented its guest experience with a new mobile and rewards system, according to Rebelez. The company’s loyalty program, which currently has 5.5 million members, allows shoppers to “take points and convert to cash for classrooms” through Casey’s Cash for Classrooms initiative, which enables members to donate their points to a school of their choice. In the future, Casey’s believes that new technological innovations will enable it to sustain growth by identifying inefficiencies and removing friction.

Campell Snacks

Offering limited-time deals and new products every week is one of the most effective ways to entice consumers, according to Val Oswalt, EVP and President at Campbell Snacks. She stated that 69% of the company’s consumers want to try something “new and trendy.” One of their most successful product campaigns was its Goldfish crackers back-to-school campaign on short-video platform TikTok, which achieved 10 billion views in three days, a success that Oswalt attributed to identifying and achieving cultural relevance with the audience on TikTok.

However, supply chain challenges and other pandemic-related issues present difficulties for Campbell Snacks’ innovative and speedy strategy. Nevertheless, Oswalt stated that the company continues to learn and adapt by staying agile and creating cross-functional working teams for powerful brands.

Loreal

L’Oréal has also leveraged social media to promote, and test, its products. Nathalie Gerschtein, President of the Consumer Products Division, North America at L’Oréal, emphasized that the discovery journey is never complete, and the company aims for new innovations to complement replenishment products, with about 30% of retail sales coming from new products and about 70% from replenishment products. Last year, Maybelline’s Sky High Mascara went viral on TikTok, a success that Gerschtein attributed to the fact that the content resonated with the target audience. (The mascara now sells 10 million units per year, which translates to about $100 million in sales per year, according to Gerschtein.) At the same time, a telescopic mascara went viral last year, although the product had been in the portfolio for years, underscoring how crucial both replenishment and discovery are—and it is notable that both achieved viral status due to user-generated content.