Mercatus Technologies Inc.

American households are increasingly turning to mass merchants for their groceries.

As a grocer, it’s essential to reverse this trend and regain your market share.

In our recently released TopShelf Webinar, we explore how contextualized commerce can transform your grocery business.

This innovative strategy not only levels the playing field by incorporating value and convenience into a grocer's service offering, but it also enhances the digital experience offered to customers with high-quality, personalized service that mass merchants can't match.

We don't just talk about strategies in this session — we show you how to implement contextualized commerce effectively using AisleOne, minimizing operational challenges and costs.

Don't miss this opportunity to grow your grocery business. Click the link to watch our presentation and access comprehensive notes to help you implement this game-changing strategy: https://mct.media/3RJMh16

Are you ready to offer your customers a truly exceptional grocery shopping experience?

Providing a shopping experience that mass merchants can't match might seem like the stuff of fantasy, but it can be achieved.

This is where contextualized commerce comes in.

Contextualized commerce is the seamless integration of digital and physical retail experiences to provide personalized, high-touch service.

Using first-party data, operational insights, and advanced personalization techniques, contextualized commerce engages customers from initial impression to transaction, both online and in-store to ensure a connected and relevant experience across all channels.

Grocers can now adapt their traditional high-touch, in-store customer service to the digital experience, incorporating value and convenience into their core value proposition.

Click here to discover how contextualized commerce gives grocers the upper hand: https://mct.media/4cTznpE

Achieving profitability in grocery eCommerce isn’t a “set-it-and-forget-it” process.

It demands careful measurement, clear communication, and a technology partner committed to optimizing your eCommerce operations.

In the latest episode of our TopShelf Spotlight series, we dive into five key strategies for driving eCommerce profitability, including how to:

- Gather the right data for informed decisions.

- Communicate best practices to your team.

- Secure organization-wide buy-in for change.

- Market your eCommerce services effectively.

- Partner with the right tech provider for success.

To learn how to make your grocery eCommerce business more profitable, watch the full episode and read our analysis: https://mct.media/4e8QnZp

You're not just competing with lower prices.

Whenever we talk about the advantages mass merchants like Walmart have over regional grocers, less expensive products are sure to be mentioned.

But more recently Walmart and other big players have used their financial muscle to implement formidable marketing strategies meant to retain the customers they initially attracted through lower prices.

Here’s how regional grocers can compete with these efforts:

*Consolidate Customer Data*
Integrate data from POS systems, loyalty programs, and eCommerce platforms into a unified customer profile for better-targeted marketing and improved experiences.

*Automate and Personalize Marketing*
Use that consolidated first-party data to create automated, personalized campaigns that engage customers individually, boosting satisfaction and conversion rates.

*Adopt Contextualized Commerce*
Bring your traditional, high-level, high-touch, in-store service into the digital experience with a personalized service that stands out.

To learn more about competing effectively and driving long-term growth through your marketing efforts, read our latest article on using tech to better reach and retain customers: https://mct.media/3SNqbv5

Here's the reality of the situation...

Grocers can't maintain profitability and match prices with Walmart.

But that doesn't mean you can't communicate and provide value to your customers.

One area in which grocers can do this easily is through eGrocery fulfillment options/receiving methods.

Adopting threshold offers that reduce delivery or pickup costs can align with the value-driven approach of today's consumers and increase cart sizes.

This idea can go even further and lead to greater customer retention by bringing fulfillment discounts into promoting membership plans and subscription services — a strategy that Walmart and Instacart have recently used to great effect.

Grocery eCommerce can be profitable.

The latest episode of TopShelf Spotlight will show you how.

In the first installment of our special two-part series on improving operational efficiency, Mercatus Chief Growth Officer Mark Fairhurst sits down with Lee Lambeth, VP of Retail Operations at Mercatus.

With more than 30 years of retail experience, Lee shares practical strategies for reducing costs, improving efficiency, and turning your eCommerce operations into a money-maker.

Where does it start?

Optimizing your picking process.

Adapting in-store routing and minimizing product touches might seem small, but it leads to big savings.

To learn more, watch the full episode and read our complete analysis on optimizing your eGrocery operations: https://mct.media/3MpQdB3

Today’s consumer wants a grocery shopping experience that is convenient, seamless, and, above all else, “made for me.”

That's why we developed AisleOne to allow grocers to reach their customers on a personal level through targeted product recommendations, personalized promotional offers, and customized loyalty incentives.

Grocers can choose from 50+ available customer data attributes to build customer-centric campaigns localized to a store or personalized to each customer.

The result? Every marketing move you make is calibrated for maximum impact — with minimal effort.

Click this link to see how AisleOne can increase your active users, boost average order values and enhance customer lifetime values: https://mct.media/3Yy5QOf

Modern consumers are driven by two factors above all else: convenience and value.

To compete with the bigger retailers, grocers have to find a way to communicate and provide these two drivers to their customer base.

Mercatus empowers grocers to communicate and provide value and convenience to their customers through:

👉 A full commerce ecosystem that enhances shopper engagement, personalization, and loyalty solutions.

👉 A seamless, personalized digital shopping experience that attracts more customers and boosts sales — both online and in-store.

Let’s work together to reclaim your share of the eGrocery market from larger retailers.

Click here to discover how Mercatus can help make your grocery business more data-driven, more customer-centric, and more profitable: https://mct.media/3LClvo0?

Today’s customers demand value and convenience from their retail experiences.

They expect grocery shopping to be seamless and “made for me.” And they want to feel valued and heard, beyond simple transactional interactions.

To keep these customers returning, grocers have to provide a shopping experience that engages them on a personal level.

That means providing them with:

✅ Personalized product recommendations,
✅ Targeted savings,
✅ Highly relevant coupons, and
✅ Customized loyalty offers.

To maximize customer retention, all of these must be based on the customer's specific shopping habits and timed to their purchasing cycles.

Only a short time ago, that level of contextualized commerce would’ve been impossible.

But with the predictive personalization provided by AisleOne, grocers can create a synergy between traditional customer service strengths and modern consumer needs to win back their market share from big retailers.

Click here to learn more: https://mct.media/4cTznpE?

It's clear the intense competition in grocery delivery comes with challenges for regional grocers.

The US eGrocery Sales for July have been published in the latest report from Brick Meets Click and Mercatus. While delivery channels are growing rapidly due to aggressive promotions by major players like Walmart and Instacart, this growth is coming at a cost. Specifically, the ability of regional grocers to maintain control over the customer experience, which in turn makes it more challenging to achieve the economies of scale needed to keep operating costs down.

Regional grocers should rethink their strategies in a competitive marketplace where maintaining customer relationships is becoming increasingly difficult. As the market continues to evolve, it’s crucial for grocery retailers to carefully balance their strategies to stay competitive and maintain control over their customer relationships.

Online grocery sales hit $7.9B in July as delivery powers ahead Pickup retained its top position in the grocery e-commerce space, but sales for the channel were flat even as delivery sales were up by more than a fifth, Brick Meets Click and Mercatus reported.

Are your customers getting the best shopping experience possible?

Month after month, we see grocery sales data, projections, and analysis all suggesting the same thing: Control over customer experience is vital to profitability.

Many retailers, however, still lean too heavily on third-party platforms rather than providing their own engaging first-party interactions with customers.

To drive sales and retain customers, every touchpoint should reflect your brand's core values and high standards of service.

That's why all Mercatus solutions are developed to empower grocers to reclaim control of their customer journey through branding consistency and an enhanced user experience.

Learn firsthand how Mercatus can enhance your customer experience and grow your sales. Click here for a free demo: https://mct.media/3Oy1vTz

The results are in. July 2024’s eGrocery Sales Report has just been released by Brick Meets Click, and here’s what you need to know:

Online grocery sales increased by more than 9% year-over-year, reaching nearly $8 billion.

Just like last month, this growth is largely driven by ongoing promotional initiatives from major players like Walmart, Instacart, and—most recently—Amazon.

Their deep discounts on annual membership plans, which include free or reduced delivery fees, have led to significant year-over-year increases in:

- Delivery sales (⬆️ 22%).
- Delivery order volume (⬆️ 20%).
- Delivery users (⬆️ 10%).

While this dramatic increase highlights the power of strategic promotions, it also raises questions about the sustainability of deep discount drivers.

Will customers stick around once these offers end?

To learn our take on the long-term viability of Delivery’s recent surge, watch an all-new episode of US eGrocery Sales Trends and read our complete analysis of the latest Brick Meets Click/Mercatus Grocery Shopping Survey: https://mct.media/3yE0juT

There was an alarming piece of data that came out of last month's sales figures...

The likelihood that a customer will complete another online order next month with the same eGrocery service they used this past month fell by more than two percentage points to 57.8%.

To solve this customer retention issue, grocers need to:

1️⃣ Take greater control of their customer experience.

2️⃣ Reduce friction points In fulfillment.

3️⃣ And make the entire shopping process as smooth, seamless, and convenient as possible.

The first step to accomplishing this is optimizing website and app interfaces to ensure easy navigation, providing quick access to frequently purchased items, and moving customers through a simplified checkout process.

Then, by enhancing the efficiency of order fulfillment, including faster and more reliable Pickup and Delivery options, grocers can create a more positive customer experience that will boost satisfaction and keep them coming back.

At Mercatus, we're dedicated to helping grocers compete on a level playing field with larger retailers.

We might not be able to provide the economies of scale that Walmart, Target, and other big chains use to keep product prices low, but we do offer the necessary tools for grocers to deliver exceptional customer experiences that Mass Merchants can't match.

All of our solutions are designed to provide a seamless omnichannel grocery shopping experience for customers that drives sales from both online and in-store shopping, including:

✨ A comprehensive eCommerce platform designed to enhance shopper engagement.

✨ A predictive personalization solution that allows grocers to send millions of personalized emails each week, ensuring each customer receives the right message, with the right offer, at the right time — all aligned to individual shopping habits and purchase cycles.

Make your grocery business more data-driven, more customer-centric, and more profitable by reaching out to Mercatus today: https://mct.media/3LClvo0

Are you leveraging personalization to its fullest potential?

We love to share how AisleOne's predictive personalization leads to an increase in active users, larger basket sizes, and better customer lifetime value—but there's even more to the story.

In the newest edition of Retail Today, Lee Lambeth, VP of Retail Operations at Mercatus, writes about the capabilities of personalization to bring multiple operational benefits that further improve a grocer's bottom line.

Here are three areas he identifies in which personalization solutions can streamline your operations and reduce expenses:

🛍️ Inventory Optimization: Use the first-party data collected by your personalization solution to better manage stock levels, minimize waste, and improve inventory management.

👥 Staffing Efficiency: Enhance in-store staffing based on the predictive insights provided by personalization engines to ensure optimal customer service at all times.

📈 Targeted Marketing: Send millions of personalized product recommendations and relevant offers each week, far surpassing the reach and cost-efficiency of traditional printed weekly circulars.

While implementing the tech to increase personalization may come with challenges, such as the need for store-wide Wi-Fi to support digital loyalty programs, Lee suggests these challenges pale in comparison to the significant returns the technology brings through both enhanced customer retention and operational efficiencies.

To learn more about leveraging this new competitve edge for grocers, check out Lee's full column for Retail Today: https://mct.media/3Slt8mf

The big retailers are upping their game — and grocers have to do the same.

The latest initiative comes from Walmart. By including discounts on delivery as a perk of signing up for their annual membership plans, Walmart is hoping to further retain the customers it's initially attracted with less expensive products.

Grocers may not be able to offer free delivery as part of a first-party loyalty program. However, they can combine value and convenience to reach customers where they are by delivering the right message with the right offer at the right time.

Instead of merely extending generic digital coupons, grocers need to leverage technology and provide more targeted, personalized, contextual offers to their customers based on past purchases, shopper profiles, preferences, and in-app search behavior.

The result? Better customer engagement. Better customer retention.

And that's important. After all, returning customers spend significantly more and order more frequently than first-time users.

In the second quarter of 2024, Walmart captured 37% of the online grocery market.

According to the Q2-2024 edition of Brick Meets Click’s US eGrocery Market Share Report, this marks its highest share level to date.

While Walmart’s growth is often attributed to modern grocery shoppers seeking value, it’s not just about lower prices. Walmart is also implementing omnichannel strategies that are reshaping the grocery industry.

How should grocers respond?

In our analysis of the report, we identify five recommendations for grocers to compete with Walmart’s latest initiatives and begin to regain their market share:

1. Strengthen your loyalty programs to offer more than nominal benefits.

2. Promote private labels in-store and online.

3. Use your customer data for better segmentation and targeted marketing.

4. Examine the relationship with your third-party delivery provider.

5. Foster a culture that champions innovation.

To learn more about implementing these recommendations, watch our webinar, read our analysis, and download the full report: https://mct.media/3WArvmg