Technology

Necessity, the Mother of Invention

Our U.S. Grocery Shopper Trends series explores the food shoppers’ journey and offers insights into the hybrid shopper landscape we’re currently experiencing. As we get to know this new consumer, it is clear they have an appetite for technology that ...

Your Solution to Technology Disruption

According to the dictionary a disruption is a “disturbance or problems which interrupt an event, activity, or process.” Considering the past few years of rapid change, grocery tech industry has certainly been ...

How Does FMI Know the Current State of the Food Industry?

The answer is from YOU. We know because the industry tells us each year when we ask, as we have been doing every year for more than 70 years. The first ever The Food Retailing Industry Speaks (Speaks) report appeared in 1949. Seventy-three years ...

Eyeing Greater Urgency on Key Issues

As we near what we hope is the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, FMI and Oliver Wyman have reconvened and published Volume 7 of our annual journal to provide a future-focused roadmap for the food industry that harnesses the wisdom and insights learned ...

Talk, Exchange, Pitch: FMItech at Midwinter

FMItech at Midwinter promotes conversations, explorations and private exchanges to enhance your technology strategy. We bring together FMI Midwinter attendees focused on technology, ecommerce and automation strategies to create actionable next steps....

Interview with Chieh Huang of Boxed: Part II, Supply Chain and Technology

FMI Midwinter Executive Conference Chairman and Co-Founder and CEO of Boxed.com, Chieh Huang, has a storied career starting his wholesale technology platform after a successful background in both law and tech. Before he takes the stage at our ...

Extending Online Sales Opportunities via Convenience and Personalization

As explored in our U.S. Grocery Shopper Trends 2021 report, based on research conducted by the Hartman Group, several factors drove the increase in online grocery shopping during the pandemic. Among those factors, we’ve identified shoppers’ desire ...

How Auto-Replenishment Can Connect the In-Store and Online Shopping Experience

The stage is set for more robust, digital food retail experiences in 2022, fueled in-part by last year’s growth in online grocery shoppers. Retailers’ technology advancements, in response to the pandemic, and increased shopper access to smartphones, ...

FMItech Pitches: Curated Innovation for the Food Industry

To help food retailers keep up with the latest food technology innovations, FMI and the Center for Advancing Retail & Technology (CART), held an online pitch competition. Through an expert set of judges, we identified the top six food technology ...

Digital Skills and the Future of the Food Industry

In the age of social media, smart phones, Wi-Fi, self-checkout lanes and all manner of AI software, it’s no surprise that technology is becoming an ever more critical fixture of food retail operations. Food retailers far and wide are beginning to ...

VIDEO: An Ecommerce Revolution in Food Retail

FMI Chief Collaboration Officer Mark Baum and Vice President, Industry Relations Doug Baker discuss the investments food retailers made to scale up their online shopping operations, such as click-and-collect and home delivery, as well as employee ...

Fresh is Front and Center for Growth, Investments

New research from FMI and Deloitte quantifies the level of importance of the fresh foods category to the food retail industry and highlights opportunities for new strategic investments to drive revenue growth, including boosting the in-store ...

Food Retail Meets Tech

From frictionless checkout to inventory controls to mobile payment apps, today’s food retail business owners face a lot of technological opportunities. In addition, thankfully, recent advancements in food technology—the branch of science dedicated ...

From Ticket Tearing to Screen Tapping: Foodservice in the Age of Ecommerce

According to The Power of Foodservice at Retail 2021 report, 89% of Baby Boomers prefer ordering from a person, while Millennials and Gen Z prefer using their smartphones or a kiosk. In fact, only 20% of Gen Z and 23% of Millennials prefer ordering ...

A Wild Industry Ride Still in Progress

Food industry leaders have surely felt a great deal of anxiety about the crazy ride they have been on for the past 18 months, which seems to not have an end in sight. Nevertheless, the entire food retailing industry has shown enormous courage in ...