The food and grocery industry is experiencing a profound transformation, driven by the meeting of digital technology, evolving consumer expectations, and mounting industry challenges.
As competition intensifies and margins remain thin, brands and suppliers are progressively turning to smart in-store execution and tech-enabled field strategies to ensure product visibility, compliance, and promotional effectiveness.
The shift from reactive to proactive in-store management can unlock new levels of efficiency and return on investment, fundamentally reshaping the way companies approach retail execution.
Tech powered people
In the highly competitive food and grocery environment, shelf performance makes or breaks a product. Out-of-stocks, poor planogram compliance, mispriced promotions, and inconsistent execution across stores all contribute to lost sales and weakened brand equity.
Now, traditional methods of field execution - paper checklists, manual audits, and sporadic store visits - are getting upgraded. Leading brands are deploying advanced digital tools to capture real-time insights and drive consistent execution.
One of the most interesting developments in this space is the rise of AI-powered image recognition. Teams can use smartphones to take photos of store shelves, which are analysed instantly to assess product placement, shelf share, pricing, and compliance with promotional plans. Taking things up a level, some retailers are even utilising shelf-edge cameras and in-store robotics to perform the same function.
These platforms not only flag execution issues but also recommend corrective actions, enabling real-time problem-solving.
There are also AI solutions that can answer on-the-job questions, coach team members, and support store operations, thus helping to free up the time of supervisors, speed up the time to competency, and improve productivity.
Connecting the store
It is not just field representatives getting technological upgrades. The physical store is becoming more digitalised, which creates an opportunity to access unparalleled data and insights to drive efficiencies and profitability.
As stores become more digitalised, they can monitor shopper activity in real-time, ensure that planogram compliance is happening, and that marketing activities are being activated.
Digitalisation can also help meet consumer expectations. Our analysis shows that consumers are looking for more engagement through personalised and customised interactions.
Among the solutions helping to provide this include self-scanning devices, which deliver targeted adverts and promotions directly to consumers as they shop, and the ability to complete payment directly on the device.
By integrating technology across every stage of the shopping process, retailers and suppliers can create a more engaging and frictionless experience that ultimately drives shopper loyalty and business growth.
By Toby Pickard, Retail Futures Senior Partner, IGD
Read more in the latest issue of Supermarket News here