Grocery And Convenience Store IT News For VARs — March 5, 2014
By Anna Rose Welch, Editorial & Community Director, Advancing RNA
In the news, an article gives insight into up sell opportunities in the grocery vertical. Also, an article looks at the evolution of the smart grocery cart.
Three Shopping Habits Grocers Should Make Digital
Chief Marketer says that there are three shopping habits grocers should make digital in order to boost customer convenience and loyalty. As more consumers make shopping lists on their phones, your clients should offer list-making and menu-planning through their websites or mobile applications. Digital circulars and digital coupons are also important services to provide tech-savvy customers. By 2014, digital coupons are expected to increase to 53.2 million, and customers are also turning to social media and web channels to find digital coupons. The future could also bring more experimenting with iBeacons, location-based apps that tell shoppers where items are located, menu kiosks, and augmented reality apps.
Shopping Carts Get Smarter
A Progressive Grocer article discusses the evolution of smart carts. These carts contain an Internet-enabled tablet that communicates with a customer’s cellphone. The tablet can download a customer’s shopping list and let users know which items on the list are on sale. These carts also serve as an important marketing tactic, as they can also showcase other advertisements for items that are not on the shopping list. Some of these carts even offer voice or gesture controls so customers can ask their cart to find an item for them. RFID readers and UPC-scanning technology can also help speed up the checkout process.
C-Suites Set Sights On Mobility, Big Data Technologies
Property Casualty 360 highlights a recent Accenture study that found mobility and Big Data are the most important digital technology priorities for large enterprises. Seventy-seven percent of global C-suite leaders have identified mobility as one of the top five priorities, followed by Big Data analytics (72 percent). The report also highlights some of the emerging technologies that respondents would consider as part of their digital agenda in the next three years. In first place were low-energy components and connectivity standards (44 percent.) This is followed by wearable technology, like smart watches and exercise devices (39 percent). Natural user interfaces, including augmented reality and voice recognition, came in third place (38 percent). Other technologies mentioned include NFC, geo-fencing, indoor analytics, and open source development platforms, to name a few.
Beacons Most Valuable When Connected To Consumer Touch Points
According to Sparkfly CEO Catherine Tabor on Chain Store Age, beacons will help retailers gain better insight into the path to purchase. In order to reap the benefits of this technology, Tabor argues the data gleaned from beacons should be merged with transactional data from POS technology.
Grocery And Convenience Store IT Talking Points
Convenience Store Decisions has highlighted some of the findings of a recent Nielsen survey. According to the survey’s results, companies are failing to engage with and cater to the needs of older customers. In particular, product and nutritional labels, advertising, and packaging were all disconnected from the aging consumer.
Convenience Store News discusses the initial results from a recent Mondelez International Mobile Futures program. The program was launched in order to determine what works and what doesn’t work for CPG brands exploring mobile.