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Click here to read or download our full research report: How Grocers and AI are Transforming the Customer Journey
The grocery industry is primed for technological transformation. Today, modern grocers face fiercer competition than ever before; it’s particularly true of smaller grocers that battle giant chains on one side, and dollar stores on the other. The race is on to provide consumers with fresh experiences, and grocers are reimagining every aspect of the shopping journey, from planning for a shop to checkout to the steps in between. For many, the simplest starting point could be the one right at hand: the cart.
Following a bit too closely to the century-old legacy of self-service supermarkets pioneered by Piggly Wiggly, many customers today still navigate aisles with carts similar to those created long ago. Now, according to a survey conducted by Grocery Dive’s studioID on behalf of Instacart, maker of the technologically advanced Caper Cart, vendors could soon revolutionize this essential piece of the shopping experience, and implement a solution for many of their strategic challenges all at once. Gone will be the clanging carts of yesteryear; in will come next-generation “smart” carts offering grocers AI-powered personalization, consumer basket spending increases, digital ad sales revenue, and more.
In fact, this may well begin as a grassroots movement. Of the 150 grocery directors and executives surveyed, 80% of them operate between one and five stores. Another 15% operate fewer than 20 stores. All of them saw technological innovation as key to their priorities. Small grocers arguably work hardest for ways to innovate and increase brand loyalty, and these results offer valuable insights not only into their technology adoption processes and strategic solutions, but the ways grocers are increasing customer basket size, decreasing friction throughout the shopping experience, and leveraging breakthroughs available now.
Click here to read or download our full research report: How Grocers and AI are Transforming the Customer Journey
