Grocery technology trends retailers need to jump on

So much has changed in the world of grocery retail. Online shopping has surged, driven by new patterns in consumer behavior. Technology-enabled capabilities such as self-checkout have expanded. Supply chain variability and instability aren’t going away. Labor shortages appear here to stay.

Meanwhile, competition has increased as new business models vie for the same grocery consumers. Look no further than the explosion of meal delivery services.

For grocery retailers, the real question is how to respond effectively to these shifts – and turn them to your advantage. Technology will play a huge role – but how, exactly? What grocery technology trends will make the biggest impact?

Grocery technology: Shopping lists reveal opportunities

Part of the challenge of mounting an effective response is knowing where to start because there are so many options.

All of which brings me to my family’s grocery list: It hardly changes from week to week. This week’s list is probably 90% identical to last week’s. And that’s likely the case for the vast majority of shoppers.

What does that mean for grocery retailers? On the supply chain side, it means that if you have a good handle on what shoppers need on any given week, your supply management practices can be much more focused and responsive. That’s not new, of course – grocery retailers have been focusing on the art and science of supply management for decades.

But in terms of delivering a superior customer experience, we’ve barely scratched the surface of what’s possible with my seemingly boring, unchanging grocery list.

AI, analytics, and the amplifying effect

• Help me navigate through the store as quickly and efficiently as possible
• Give me personalized discounts on items that are most valuable to me
• Recommend purchase pairings I may have overlooked
• Tell me how to reduce my carbon impact
• Actively support my desire to buy local wherever possible

Each of these data-, AI- and analytics-enabled capabilities has a broader impact on store operations, from talent management to supply chain transparency and beyond.

Similarly, the technologies required to deliver these capabilities are deeply connected to those used throughout the grocery retailer’s organization.

Grocers need to put the right technology enablers in place in order to deliver on these next-level customer experience strategies.

Top omnichannel grocery technology trends 

As customers expand their embrace of online shopping, the challenge for grocers is to deliver a seamless experience between in-person and online experiences.

When customers are using their phones in stores, will they get real-time updates? Will they receive equally appropriate offers when actively shopping online, at home? When deciding whether to drive to the store to get what they need or to have the items delivered, will they benefit from timely insights on product availability and delivery speed?

These are only a few of the types of questions that must be answered to deliver a superior omnichannel experience. Fortunately, there are a growing number of technologies that can help grocers.

Here are some of the most important grocery technology trends today:

1. Store-level warehouse management software
2. E-commerce webstores that are directly integrated with delivery carriers to provide live updates
3. Push notifications for online shoppers, based on their buying profiles
4. Mobile tools for location-based marketing
5. Virtual stores in the metaverse (While this capability is still in its infancy, expect a rapid escalation of metaverse-based activities soon.)

Benefits of AI and predictive technologies for grocery retail: Better CX, more profit

Omnichannel buying habits have created high volumes of data captured from grocery customers, which grocers can put to work to achieve a range of goals, including:

• Creating a customized customer experience
• Predicting buying habits and proposing options for customers based on their historical purchases
• Anticipating which products consumers need, so grocers can stock their shelves or warehouses to meet customer demand
• Reducing shrinkage based on historical sales and tracking data within stores and online

AI can be instrumental in each of these areas, helping improve grocers’ interactions with customers through loyalty programs, as well as improving profitability margins through more effective inventory management.

For most grocers, fresh food sections account for up to 30% of wasted inventory. But with AI, grocers can more accurately forecast demand. As a result, ordering can be automated based on AI’s determination of inventory needs. This eliminates human guesswork and provides a cleaner handoff between the stores and warehouses.

The end result? Making sure customers get the right products when they need them.

Grocery technology: connecting the dots

This isn’t an exhaustive list of the technologies and solutions that grocers can deploy as part of a next-level customer experience strategy, but it’s a pretty good start. Most grocers are already using some of these solutions in some parts of their business, and can build on their successes in these areas.

Beyond any set of solutions, grocers need to build the “connective tissue” between these solutions. Today, those critical connections are facilitated by data, analytics, the cloud, and, increasingly, AI.

Grocers who can achieve everyday operational competence in these areas will be well prepared to adopt, dial up, or dial down different solutions as needed, regardless of what lies ahead.

In practical terms, this means being willing to try new things – and to dump solutions that aren’t working – while consistently refining and improving capabilities in data, analytics, the cloud, and AI.

What’s at stake? Your ability to develop, nurture, and maintain stronger relationships with individual consumers over the long haul. At a time when competition for consumers is only growing fiercer and more unrelenting, it’s worth the effort.