Grocery and Convenience Store IT News For VARs

By Anna Rose Welch, Editorial & Community Director, Advancing RNA

Business Solutions searched recent headlines for news of interest to VARs serving grocery and convenience store clients.

Convenience Ranked Most Important To Supermarket Shoppers

A recent supermarket survey by Market Force International found that shoppers consider convenience the number one attribute for selecting a supermarket, followed closely by low prices and good sales/promotion.

Discount e-Coupons A Possibility For C-Store Channels

The Petroleum Convenience Alliance for Technology Standards (PCATS) recently met to discuss standardization of discount e-coupons for convenience stores. Members of NACS claim that, because of the increase of mobile wallet technology, opportunities exist to provide branded discount e-coupons for tobacco, packaged beverages, beer, and other consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies.

Lowering Food Prices Could Cause Price War

Nielsen data reveals a decrease in U.S. grocery sales volume, leading Wal-Mart to lower food prices in the hope of increasing sales. Wells Fargo analyst John Baumgartner expresses concern that lowering prices in a decreasing market will lead companies, such as Kraft and Kellogg, to increase price promotion, resulting in price wars and suffering profit margins.

Grocery IT Talking Points

David Orgel outlines the main points behind consultancy Oliver Wyman’s assertion: AmazonFresh is “‘by far the most dangerous of the new breed’ of online and multi-channel competitors.” While Orgel acknowledges that an online provider could challenge traditional food retailing, he believes AmazonFresh will be less disruptive than past expansions like WalMart’s Supercenter expansion.

Ann Meyer from Retailleader.net interviews Terry Drayton, co-founder of the online grocery retailer HomeGrocer.com, about new opportunities and challenges facing food and beverage e-commerce today.