Amazon’s efforts to redirect its brick-and-mortar focus towards grocery is probably not going as deliberate. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported Tuesday (May 3) that the corporate is closing six Whole Foods Market shops, with 5 of these places closing Friday (May 6).
Read extra: Amazon to Shutter Physical Bookstores, Focus on Grocery Opportunities
The firm didn’t supply a motive for the closures, though the outlet famous that a spokesperson said the grocery store retains watch on the “progress potential” of every of its places.
While Amazon is a chief in lots of retail classes, it lags prime gamers in grocery. Research from PYMNTS’ April report “Amazon Versus Walmart This autumn 2021: The Ongoing Battle for Consumer Retail Spend,” which drew from Amazon and Walmart’s’ quarterly earnings reviews and from client spending information, discovered that the typical U.S. family nonetheless spends roughly 10 instances as a lot on meals and drinks at Walmart than at Amazon. In 2021, Walmart captured $264 billion in meals and beverage gross sales, whereas Amazon captured simply $27 billion.
See extra: US Consumers Spend 10x More on Groceries at Walmart Than Amazon
H-E-B Adds in-Store Video Marketing
As grocers look to use the learnings of the digital shift to their omnichannel technique, many are bringing extra tech-forward content material into their shops.
Marketing expertise firm Looma introduced Wednesday that it has introduced its interactive video promoting screens known as Loop into round 120 H-E-B grocery shops in Texas. This transfer brings the expertise to greater than a third of the grocery store’s places within the state.
“Working with H-E-B has been an immense privilege,” mentioned Looma Founder and CEO Cole Johnson in a assertion. “The care and a spotlight to element with which they evaluated our partnership from day one has affirmed Loop’s effectiveness and product-market match; whereas lending us industry-leading counsel as we’ve sought to refine and evolve our providing.”
The announcement comes days after retail expertise firm Clerk, which gives “Grocery TV” product enabling video promoting for manufacturers on small in-store screens, introduced Friday (April 29) that it had raised $30 million in its Series B funding spherical, which it’ll use to increase and to develop its expertise.
Read extra: Retail Tech Company Clerk Announces $30M Series B as Grocers eCommerce-ify Stores
Initiatives reminiscent of this goal grocery’s in-store customers, a group that accounts for many grocery prospects, in line with the Decoding Consumer Affinity examine, which discovered that 82% of grocery customers want buying merchandise in shops, whereas the opposite 18% prefers to buy digitally.
Schnucks Adds Rewards-Earning Capabilities to Delivery and Curbside Channels
One of the important thing elements that separates grocers with a profitable omnichannel technique from the remaining is the power to combine the expertise throughout channels. For occasion, if a client can earn rewards factors on in-store purchases, they can even anticipate to have the ability to earn these rewards on digital orders.
Schnucks, a St. Louis, Missouri-based grocer with 112 shops throughout 4 Midwestern states, introduced Wednesday (May 4) that, the place as soon as customers ordering from its loyalty app had been redirected to an exterior channel for curbside pickup and supply orders, now they will order by the app and earn rewards.
“By including further eCommerce choices within the Schnucks Rewards app, we’re creating a extra streamlined buyer expertise,” mentioned Schnucks Senior Director of Digital Experience Chace MacMullan in a assertion. “We proceed to develop and implement app options that permit prospects to work together with Schnucks digitally in our shops and at dwelling.”
Rewards are a vital motivator for a lot of grocery customers, in line with information from PYMNTS’ January examine, “Decoding Customer Affinity: The Customer Loyalty to Merchants Survey 2022.” The report, created in collaboration with Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions, which drew from a survey of greater than 2,000 U.S. customers, discovered that 42% of customers mentioned loyalty packages with rewards they like would enhance their loyalty to grocery retailers.
See extra: Thirty-Five Percent of Consumers Will Switch Grocers, Pharmacies for Better Digital Features
Additionally, analysis from PYMNTS’ August examine, “What Consumers Expect From Their Grocery Shopping Experience,” created in collaboration with ACI Worldwide, which surveyed greater than 2,300 U.S. adults within the late spring, discovered that 23% of grocery customers purchase on-line and have the merchandise delivered to their dwelling and 20% purchase on-line and use curbside pickup.
Read extra: Digital Features Can Help Grocers Win Over 43% of Shoppers
Kroger Brings Back Its Supplier Accelerator for the Second Year
Kroger, the most important U.S. pure-play grocer, introduced Wednesday that it’s accepting purposes for the second 12 months of Go Fresh & Local Supplier Accelerator program to mentor native and regional growers and producers.
“Kroger is totally dedicated to supporting a various group of revolutionary, native suppliers who can deliver a nice assortment of contemporary merchandise to our prospects,” mentioned Kroger Chief Merchant and Marketing Officer Stuart Aitken in a assertion. “Kroger dedicated to investing $10 billion in various suppliers by 2030, and the Go Fresh & Local Supplier Accelerator is a profitable method to catapult Kroger nearer to that purpose. We are excited to satisfy this 12 months’s suppliers who will assist us advance our dedication to contemporary in our almost 2,800 shops.”
The information comes about two months after Whole Foods introduced the launch of its Local and Emerging Accelerator Program to mentor rising producers.
See extra: Whole Foods Launches Accelerator
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NEW PYMNTS DATA: THE TRUTH ABOUT BNPL AND STORE CARDS – APRIL 2022
About: Shoppers who’ve retailer playing cards use them for 87% of all eligible purchases — however this doesn’t imply retailers ought to boot purchase now, pay later (BNPL) choices from checkout. The Truth About BNPL And Store Cards, a PYMNTS and PayPal collaboration, surveys 2,161 customers to seek out out why offering each BNPL and retailer playing cards are key to serving to retailers maximize conversion.
https://www.pymnts.com/information/retail/2022/grocery-roundup-whole-foods-hits-snag-in-supermarket-video-marketing-expands/
