Research

By Mark Baum, Chief Collaboration Officer, Food Marketing Institute

Who is the digital grocery shopper? What role must retailers and CPG manufacturers play and what actions must they take to protect their base and grow baskets and shoppers in an era of connected commerce? When embarking on a comprehensive digital food retailing strategy, how can retailers and manufacturers collaborate in a productive and mutually profitable way? Does the digital age require a new model of trading partner collaboration?

We want answers to those questions to better enable our members, which is why FMI is embarking on a multidimensional, multi-year digital shopper and digitally enabled retailing journey with Nielsen. We’ll explore the business imperatives that are crucial to understanding retailers’ positioning today and to have a strategic vision for the future – capabilities among people, processes, and technologies; priorities for connected commerce solutions; and to anticipate the barriers and pitfalls to avoid.

FMI’s U.S. Grocery Shopper Trends 2016 suggests that while online shopping for groceries may still be relatively small, shoppers are using digital tools prior to and during shopping trips. No surprise, Millennials are most likely to engage with retailers using social media or other digital tools, such as apps. The Trends analysis makes a strong case that our rapidly changing food culture demands more creative ways to integrate new technologies into how shoppers plan, browse, curate, purchase and ultimately eat. As our digital partner, Nielsen will lead with us on this exploration of current and future digital shopping behaviors, incorporating perspectives from top retailers, CPG manufacturers and technology/service providers, along with extensive consumer research.

We are recruiting a limited number of retailers and manufacturers for these interviews that will result in tangible resources for the industry to help develop and customize connected commerce strategies and tactics. Specifically, we’re talking with interested individuals at food retailer and CPG manufacturing companies with functional oversight of e-commerce; marketing; merchandising; supply chain; strategy; store operations; finance; and technology or information systems. Based on interviews across key functional areas in your company, we will benchmark your organization and provide you with a personalized point-of-view about your readiness (and capabilities) to integrate digital into your go-to-market strategy.

Initial findings of the FMI and Nielsen “Digitally Engaged Food Shopper” initiative will be available to all FMI members in 2017.  A previewed look at topline insights will be revealed at the FMI Midwinter Executive Conference in January 2017.