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Here's how smaller grocers are using digital
BI Intelligence
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Unata, which offers digital solutions for smaller grocers, is now partnered with 11 grocery retailers in North America across 1,200 individual locations, and has an annual run rate of over 1 million orders.
The company has seen increasing demand for digital capabilities among smaller grocers, Chris Bryson, Unata’s CEO, told BI Intelligence, especially as Amazon’s looming acquisition of Whole Foods puts a magnifying glass on the industry.
Unata offers a platform that grocers use to bolster their digital capabilities. The platform can be integrated into individual grocers' websites to provide a seamless shopping and checkout experience for online orders. It features a recently updated “Unified Shopping Experience,” which encompasses all aspects of the customer journey, from building a shopping list to placing an order, and adjusts to reflect accurate inventory, pricing, and other factors. Unata also offers an “Integrated Configurable Products” tool, which allows shoppers to place items that need to be prepared ahead of time, like deli meats or sandwiches, in the same digital shopping cart as the rest of their products, further maximizing convenience.
Smaller grocery chains can succeed if they move into digital quickly and utilize industry expertise, Bryson said. Unata has seen its partners’ shoppers increase spend when they introduce the digital platform, and Bryson believes this is because consumers tend to maximize convenience over loyalty, affording grocers' with greater options a major advantage. Smaller grocers also have years of experience in the industry that Bryson thinks will enable them to introduce successful omnichannel options. (Unata’s platform helps grocers take orders, but the stores have to offer click-and-collect, delivery, or other options to handle fulfillment.) Omnichannel is extremely difficult to execute, but Bryson has found that Unata’s partners’ operational expertise, often from decades in the grocery industry, has made it possible for them to successfully implement these techniques. By integrating Unata's digital platform with omnichannel, these small stores can take a bite out of online grocery, which is set to grow significantly in the years ahead.
Amazon and other retail giants have a data advantage, but Unata is looking to counteract it. Unata collects customer information through loyalty card programs, and utilizes that data on the grocers’ behalf to send personalized emails and more. Smaller grocers don’t have huge databases of past transactions like Amazon or Walmart, but Unata’s data capabilities and personalization efforts may help them compete with the larger retailers.
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