Grocery retail
Supermarkets chains compete with new entrants, invest huge resources for acquiring new customers, retaining the existing ones, and knowing more about them.
They invest in analytics but do not get high resolution and do not fully use the results
Manage-My-Grocery (MMG) is a platform enabling the supermarket to:
- Create an effective two-way channel with the customer
- Increase market share
- Know in-depth their customers since they share their valuable information with the supermarket
- Improve their forecast
- Provide really focused offers and real help in shopping and managing the grocery
- Make loyalty programs innovative and differentiating
A bunch of new services
The grocery inventory at home and the shopping list are automatically built and updated. The shopping list can be arranged according to the common path within the store. On a Smartphone the list serves as guidance in the alleys of the store.
The supermarket can make suggestions like special discounts relevant to the customers. Similar items to the ones already purchased can be offered with a discount (e.g. cereals B can be offered with a discount as a replacement to cereals A usually purchased). Special coupons can be issued for items purchased out of the chain.
For non-Smartphone customers the Supermarket chains can install simple internet kiosks enabling to view the inventory and the shopping list and to print it.
Manage-My-Grocery (MMG) can be used for self-check-out. It is used to scan items while shopping. It replaces the trolley scanner in a cost-effective way.
MMG improves coupons and discounts: they flash in the shopping list and are seamlessly included in the bill.
The shopping list is updated after items are scanned.
MMG solves the problem of in-store shopping vs personalization: The supermarket knows in real time who is in the store and hopefully what’s is going to be purchased Knowing the shopping list and the habits the supermarket can prepare the customer’s basket in advance.
The supermarket can recommend where to shop within the chain:
- Part of the shopping list in proximity store
- Part in hypermarket
- Part online (e.g. bulky or heavy items…)
Loyalty programs
Consumers say the opportunity to earn rewards is an important driver for purchasing from a brand.
“When evaluating your brand, consumers also are evaluating your loyalty program”
“Do mass market loyalty programs work? The evidence suggests “not as well as you may think”
And still most loyalty programs look the same.
MMG will be the differentiator between your loyalty program and others
Food industry
Anti-waste
Manage-My-Grocery (MMG)is in line with anti-waste initiatives.
- Anti-waste laws usually operate at the retail level.
- MMG is instrumental at the consumer level, the retail customer. MMG is a major tool for consumers who want to have a better control of their purchases.
Grocery purchases represent about 15% of the family budget. Therefore, avoiding poorly controlled, unwanted, and often repeated spending is important for the family budget. Food waste has reached huge numbers, especially in developed countries.
It is estimated that one third of food for human consumption is wasted worldwide. In industrialized countries, more than 40% of waste occurs at the retail and consumer level.
By helping households to manage in a better way their purchases and inventories, MMG contributes to reduce food waste.
The commercial aspect
- When implemented by the food industry MMG allows producers and manufacturers to be in direct contact with shoppers / consumers.
Today, the contact between the food industry and the consumers necessarily involves the retail chains. By offering MMG as a service, producers and manufacturers have a two-way communication channel with consumers.
- They have the capacity to apprehend the consumer’s next shopping list and in which chain and store they plan to shop.
- Producers and manufacturers can offer their products (not listed in the shopping list) by positioning them on the smartphone screen near the competitor’s item that the consumer plans to buy
- A small manufacturer can promote its product by indicating in which store the item is available if it is not present in all stores.
- He can offer promotions by better understanding what the competitors’ offers are
- A promotion on a specific item in the store or online can be analyzed in more details if the producer / manufacturer knows the customer’s shopping list before the customer has been informed of this promotion.
- Producers and manufacturers who offer MMG can team with supermarket chains in offering the service, thus creating a win-win-win situation.
- Without the cooperation of supermarket chains the service can be offered by scanning a copy of the supermarket bill.
- All these benefits are measurable and the effectiveness of MMG can be easily analyzed
The consumer
Manage-My-Grocery (MMG)reconciles grocery retail, food industry and customers:
- They no longer shop “blindly”: they know their inventory; their shopping list is up to date. They only buy the necessary items. If they buy items not on the shopping list, they do it consciously.
- Forgotten items are no longer bought in proximity stores at higher prices. No time is wasted.
- Customers have a better control over their grocery expenses.
Transparency is important in the relationship between food manufacturers / retail and consumers. Consumers need to know who offer the service and what kind of information they share.