As grocers seek to better understand shopper behavior, a PYMNTS Intelligence report found that half are investing in the ability to track customer habits across digital and physical channels.
Look at the numbers
The PYMNTS Intelligence study, “Innovation Demands for Large Retailers: Convenience and Personalization,” produced in partnership with ACI Worldwide, found that companies with at least 50 stores and at least 100% of annual revenue are based in the United States. We looked at 300 U.S. and U.K. retailers with annual revenues of at least $1 billion, or at least $1 billion for the 100 companies. A UK-based company will be paid £1 million ($127 million) for its involvement in digital technology.
The results revealed that 50% of grocers are innovating the ability to track customer purchase history across all channels.
What the data actually does
Many grocery stores are implementing new digital technologies into their in-store experiences to capture data about shoppers’ in-store behavior.
For example, in November, French grocery giant Carrefour announced a partnership with A2Z Smart Technologies’ flagship smart cart product, Cust2Mate, to deploy 2,000 carts in the retailer’s stores and in the first half of this year. There are plans to increase it further.
In an interview with PYMNTS earlier this year, Cust2Mate CEO Guy Mordock said the company sees a 30% increase in average basket size when shoppers use smart carts over regular shopping carts. . He added that in the future, Cust2Mate will be able to generate “data-driven insights” and run “on-cart advertising and retail media” based on that data.
In addition, Instacart earlier this month piloted ads on the Caper Cart screen, a smart shopping cart that enables real-time targeted messaging, at a Bristol Farms store in Southern California. announced that more grocery stores will open in the future. Instacart said in a news release that it plans to have “thousands” of Smart Carts in stores by the end of the year.
Meanwhile, other digital shopping technologies, such as Amazon’s “Just Walk Out” and scan-and-pay features, are also expanding across retailers.
