retail, commerce, grocery, COVID, COVID19, coronavirus
Gary E. Hawkins
Retail Response to COVID19: Innovation in ...

During my many years as a supermarket retailer I saw my share of panic buying related to natural disasters like blizzards and hurricanes. Like many, I lived through the 9/11 crisis and its impact. But I have never experienced anything like what we are currently going through.

I’ve talked with many people across the supply chain these past few days, from brand manufacturers to distributors to retailers. I have been in our local stores seeking supplies but also watching how retailers are responding to a never-before environment.

While healthcare workers are always thought of as the front lines in a pandemic like we are experiencing, it is just as true that the workers in supermarkets and drug stores are equally on the front lines. The commitment by people across the massive grocery industry to serve the people in their communities during this crisis is to be commended. They don’t have to be there - they can stay home like many others, taking care of their families, and self-quarantining. But these store workers are unselfishly putting themselves on the front line of the coronavirus battle, realizing that feeding and providing needed supplies for their communities is as important as the doctors and nurses caring for the ill.

When the current crisis abates - and it will - I believe the retail industry can step back to realize what it has accomplished….

Retail Response to COVID19: Innovation in Realtime

technology

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The Radical Collaborations that are Shaping Retail

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The Radical Collaborations that are Shaping Retail

While it’s true that managing brick and mortar retail grows consistently more challenging each year, and more long-respected brands continue to shutter their doors, it’s important to note there are still many retailers who are thriving.

Businesses who are winning are those who have worked to re-invent themselves, accommodating changing expectations and customer shopping behaviors to create in-store experiences that matter.

To determine how others might be able to recreate these successes – or pioneer new ones – we’ve invited retailers, brands, merchandisers and industry experts to join us for the 9th Annual INSIGHT conference. We’ll gather to share ideas and observations about the people, processes, and tools that are driving superior instore results….

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How Independents Can Overcome Retail Giants in 2020

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How Independents Can Overcome Retail Giants in 2020

No one ever said it’s easy to be an independent retailer. This is especially true in a retail world where the battle for supremacy among giants such as Amazon, Walmart, Kroger, Albertsons, Alidi and Costco can cause collateral damage to independent retailers.

However, as the new decade begins soon, independents have a lot going for them relative to larger rivals. They are nimble, smart, very connected to their markets and communities and can move quickly if they choose. They can fully capitalize on these strengths by...

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Driving Grocery Store Optimization Through Perishables

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Driving Grocery Store Optimization Through Perishables

Grocery stores offer a wide variety of foods, including many perishables that require tight temperature controls. Fridges, freezers, reach-ins, and bunkers that hold these sensitive foods must be checked throughout the day, taking time away from team members from ensuring good experience for their customers. Manual temperature checks, typically done with pen and paper, are error-prone, easily forgotten, increase compliance risk, and lead to unnecessary food waste in the event of a temperature failure. This presents a significant opportunity to leverage…

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Looking Ahead to The CART Event at NGAShow 2020

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Looking Ahead to The CART Event at NGAShow 2020

The CART Event at the NGA Show coming up in February, 2020, is focused on helping Independent Retail understand What it takes to Thrive in The Age of ‘i’.

Changes in the retail industry are happening faster than ever before, transforming the retail store, and how retailers go to market and interact with their shoppers. Retailers can embrace this change, avail themselves of capabilities never before possible, or be disrupted into irrelevancy. And disruption is exactly what’s happening as the industry undergoes gut-wrenching change as decades of product-first practices give way to a true customer-first retail experience…

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Fifty-six and one-in-eight equals a huge shift for the grocery business.

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Fifty-six and one-in-eight equals a huge shift for the grocery business.

As we gaze toward the future of the grocery business, two numbers might be worthy of study.

Both suggest significant changes in consumer behavior – and strategic investment.

The first is 56 percent.  That’s the number of US internet users in the past twelve months who purchased groceries online, according to research published recently by the CPG analytics firm TABS Analytics.    It compares to the 38 percent of the US internet population who purchased online a year ago, and equates to some 159 million persons.     

The second is one in eight.  That’s the rough number of worldwide Google searches that were conducted via a voice assistant interface last year.   That’s some 250 billion searches. 

The first – the shift to online grocery ordering – is apparent to most industry leaders. Though today online ordering accounts for only two percent of total US food and beverage sales (according to eMarketer’s March 2019 study), digital grocery revenues are expected to grow nearly 20 percent per year for at least the next five years.

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What's Your Story?

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What's Your Story?

If your company provides solutions, particularly technology solutions, to the retail industry, selling is a mandatory activity and in many younger companies that duty often falls to the founder, CEO, or other key executive. The CART team has worked with hundreds of young tech companies and we’ve seen some things that work and we’ve seen many things that don’t work as well so thought we’d share some lessons with you. Many technology company people are incredibly smart when it comes to the tech, but unprepared when it comes to the selling of it.

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Three Imperatives for Retail in the Next Three Years

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Three Imperatives for Retail in the Next Three Years

Think about major developments in the grocery retail industry between 1940 and 2015, and by major I’m talking about advances that are truly transformational in nature. 

When I went through this exercise I came up with only three: The development of self-shopping, the development of UPC barcode scanning, and the development of capturing customer identified transaction data via loyalty programs.

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3 Ways Independent Grocers Can Compete With the ‘Big Guys’

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3 Ways Independent Grocers Can Compete With the ‘Big Guys’

Guest blog by Bobby Brannigan, Founder and CEO of Mercato

The other day I overheard a phone call between one of our sales representatives and an Independent Grocer. It went something like this:

Sales Rep: Hi, this is Nikki from Mercato. We are the only e-commerce and delivery platform designed exclusively for independent grocers. I was hoping to talk with you about getting your store online and growing your business.

Grocer: Oh, I’m not even thinking about that right now. There is a store across the street and they aren’t online, so I’m not sure it is important for me. Plus, I’m really busy.

The sad truth is that we hear conversations like this all the time.  It’s almost 2020, and here is a merchant who isn’t even thinking about getting online. That isn’t even the worst part! The worst part is how far this is from what the big chains are actually thinking and doing. To them, e-commerce is yesterday. They are already there. They have already moved on to the next big things.

How is the independent grocer supposed to compete in a world where the resource gap between the “haves” (Kroger, Amazon, Albertsons, etc.) and the “have-nots” is this large?

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The Promise and Peril of Data for Retailers and Solution Providers

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The Promise and Peril of Data for Retailers and Solution Providers

Data powers the retail industry, especially in today’s digital age. From in-store analytics to optimized-everything, and from marketing personalization to product customization, big data is the fuel in an age of tech-enabled innovation. Rarely do we see a few weeks go by that some new solution enters the industry that either creates a new data stream or feeds off existing data.