Increase Your Bottom Line with Grocery Retail Tools

Retail technology innovation continues to move at a rapid pace with no signs of slowing down, and you can’t afford to get left behind. To compete in today’s ever-evolving retail landscape, you need the tools and technology to reach consumers, capture their loyalty, and scale your grocery business growth. As retail e-commerce continues to grow and gobbles up more market share year-over-year, you can remain competitive by upping your digital game and implementing essential grocery retail tools like a retail mobile app, digital loyalty program, first-party data platform, and retail media network.

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Get Started with Top Grocery Retail Tools

It can be challenging to keep up with the latest grocery retail tools. Five years ago, we never would have predicted the rise of grocery delivery service providers, online ordering, and curbside pickups. As most grocers are working within limited profit margins, you’ll want to make a calculated investment in grocery retail tools that offer the greatest return on investment.

Here’s where you can begin:

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Retail Mobile Application

The number one rule of marketing is to reach your customers wherever they are, in the way that’s most convenient for them. A retail mobile application lets you connect with shoppers throughout the buyer’s journey — when they’re at home making a list, in the car trying to find your nearest location, in the aisle trying to decide between two brands, or waiting for the text that it’s time to restock on their favorite snacks. For retailers, an app serves as a direct link with customers — an essential tool that can’t be overlooked.

Consider the growing popularity of retail mobile apps: in 2018, 54.2% of US grocers had retail mobile apps, up from 29.6% in 2017. Presently, over 68% of shoppers use mobile apps in store to guide their purchases and save a buck. While it may be easy to piggyback off third-party grocery delivery apps, brick-and-mortar grocers that invest in mobile technology make sure they control the user experience and service caliber for their loyal customers.  

Digital Loyalty Program

Your frequent buyers represent the lion’s share of your revenue — about 65%, in fact! Fortunately, it costs less to advertise to existing customers than to court new business. Digital loyalty programs offer a buffer for inflation and inventory shortages that are all too common today. Shoppers will stay with your brand because they like the savings they earn, the personalized deals you offer, and the ease of shopping with a known entity.

While digital loyalty programs are nothing new, 75% of consumers say they favor companies that offer rewards. More than half of customers (56%) say they give their loyalty to brands which “get them.” Increasing customer retention and loyalty by just 5% can generate 25 to 95% greater profits. Furthermore, more than half of shoppers polled consider rewards to be “very” or “extremely” important, and coupon redemptions are on the rise during this period of prolonged inflation.

First-Party Data

First-party data is equivalent to marketing gold. What products are consumers browsing or adding to their shopping lists? What are they buying? How often are they buying? What products are they buying together? What coupons are they redeeming? What SMS messages and emails are they opening? All this information can help you make better decisions for your business — and it can help your brand partners build their businesses as well.

It’s difficult to ignore the fact that 88% of marketers see first-party data as a strategic asset and a priority. As visibility into what our shoppers are viewing and doing online shrinks, grocers will be leaning more heavily on data collected at the point of purchase, on their own websites, and in their retail mobile apps. By connecting these divergent channels, grocers will get a more complete view of their loyal customers, allowing them to dish up more of what people want and need.

Retail Media

Advertise your latest deals on your website and your mobile app — and invite the brands you sell to do the same (for a fee). There is no doubt in the power of advertising in store, as consumers are closest to converting from consideration to sale, while faced with a plethora of choices before them. Retail media allows you to act on the first-party data you’ve collected and tie in your digital loyalty program to offer greater value to your customers.  

Retail media is predicted to be a huge money maker for retailers — which is welcome news to an industry with notoriously small profit margins. From 2020 to 2021, the number of CPG brands working with retail media networks to gain access to first-party data nearly doubled from 33% to 62%. As a result, one-quarter of retailers are generating more than $100 million in revenue off their retail media networks. For retailers, retail media advertising delivers a way to deepen relationships with consumers who are seeking more information and discounts from top brands. It also deepens ties with high quality brands, allowing retailers to create more seamless partnerships and offer better assortments than their competitors.

Stay Competitive with E-commerce and Increase Your Bottom Line

Grocery retail tools enable you to meet consumer demands for information, convenience, savings, and connection.

By positioning your business at the top of its game, you’ll be able to stay competitive with popular e-commerce giants — especially considering you have a key differentiator in your brick-and-mortar real estate. It’s much easier and more affordable for you to invest in the digital tools to expand into e-commerce sales than it is for e-commerce brands to establish physical stores.

With grocery retail tools powering the next phase of your growth, you can expect to see a number of immediate benefits, such as:

Increased basket size

• A retail mobile app allows customers to start building lists at home and purchase later.
• Loyalty program promotions inspire consumers to stock up and save.
• First party data allows for greater personalization, which can increase baskets 5-15%.
• Retail media enables in store advertising, which often drives unplanned purchases.
  

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Better ability to build loyalty

• Communicate with shoppers through your app’s welcome screen and digital circulars.
• Shoppers prefer to give their business to a company that rewards them for their loyalty.
• With first party data, you know what individual shoppers want and need, so you can deliver.
• Retail media networks allow you to target customers even without the use of cookies.
  

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Growth of margin-rich revenue

• Expand your in store sales to e-commerce deliveries made through your retail mobile app.
• Increase the average lifetime value of your shoppers through your loyalty program.
• Leverage your first party data by attracting advertiser dollars in exchange for information.
• Advertisers pay you for the ability to communicate with your shoppers through retail media.

Take a Bold Leap into the Future with Swiftly Grocery Retail Tools

The digital transformation struck the grocery industry hard and fast. Fortunately, there are solutions available to help every brick-and-mortar grocer big and small succeed in this increasingly omnichannel environment.

Swiftly offers all the grocery retail tools you need to compete. Our team can set you up with a retail mobile application that delivers first-party data, advertising revenue, and greater customer engagement. As a true partner, we can provide full back-end support to ensure your sustained success. Contact us to learn more.