By Margaret Core, Vice President, Marketing & Industry Relations, Food Marketing Institute
In his June address to an audience of 6,000 at their annual associates and shareholders celebration, Doug McMillon, president and CEO of Walmart Inc. shared, “If I oversimplify our ability to thrive in the future, it comes down to one thing: our ability to solve problems together well enough and fast enough.” Later in his presentation, he expanded on change, saying, “Retail will change more in the next five years than it has in the last 50.”
McMillon’s two statements ring true as I reflect on my time at Groceryshop 2019. Here are some takeaways from the event:
Partnership Is Still Essential
When tackling technology solutions, there is a need for retail, CPG, and tech providers to come together and share conversations, best practices and strategic insights in order to find opportunities that might be right for their specific business needs.
Retail Teams Are Changing
Retailer teams are becoming more cross-functional and better at decision making across functional areas. We were thrilled to see FMI retail members send larger teams to Groceryshop 2019, showing that explorations and decisions are being tackled in cross-functional teams. The roadmap to a successful digital strategy is built on organizational collaboration and integration.
Customer Data Requires Building Trust
Every food retail company has one thing in common right now—without meaning to, they have become proprietors of a new kind of trust dealing with customer data. The flip side of acquiring consumer data is that customers hold the food retailer to certain expectations—namely, taking steps to safeguard their privacy. What are you doing to build data trust and privacy? How are you preparing for the coming privacy revolt? Pay attention to the signs, so you can have a strategy in place.
Shopping Is Changing
Customers are using online tools during their awareness and discovery shopping process as well as to purchase online and offline. Retailers and brands need to adapt and roll out new models to deliver on rising customer expectations. Omnichannel retail models require retailers and brands alike to reinvent how they deploy people, technology, marketing and media. Highly engaged omnichannel shoppers are critical to growth, but how do you pivot to take advantage of the opportunity to win them over?
Resources from Groceryshop 2019
As a partner with Groceryshop, we’re delighted to share:
- Videos of general session keynotes approved for sharing.
- 1,000+ photos of the event.
- Some of the extensive media coverage, including in Business Insider and Forbes.
- Must see videos from the “Get to Know the Speaker Series” filmed onsite.
We’re looking forward to Groceryshop 2020, which will take place on Sept. 14-17, 2020 at Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas.
Our next stop is FMItech@Midwinter, Jan. 24-27, 2020, where retailers and CPG will continue to share ideas with solution providers with Tech Talks, Tech Exchange meeting tables and more.
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