2012 – the year of mobile convergence for retailers?
Probably one of the most insightful posts on mobile and retailing was recently published on Forbes.com by John Caron of Modiv Media – one of the most holistic mobile solution providers out there for retailers.
“For Mobile Commerce: the Year of Convergence and Context” explores the mobile related trends that will influence retailing over 2012. Read more
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- Check out Comedy
- Changing face of Retail – a threat to grocers?
- Aisle50 – Groupon for food
- Building Loyalty with Health & Wellness
Mobile apps not a silver bullet?
A recent discussion article on RetailWire.com entitled “The Fallacy of the Connected Consumer’s Love of Mobile Apps” by Rick Moss daws on some interesting research to show that mobile may not be the silver bullet that many retailers and industry players have previously thought.
According to the report, Meet the Connected Consumer: How Tablets, Smartphones and Facebook are Changing the Ways Consumers Shop, only 4% of respondents shoppped within an app on the phone. Furthermore, only 14% shopped using their smartphones compared to 87% who used their PC’s. Read more
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Claims Halo effect
A recent post published by Caroline Scott- Thomas on FoodNavigator-usa.com drew attention to studies that indicate that products labelled with certain ethical claims create a halo effect around the percieved nutritional content.
The post highlights two studies that indicate that products that make ethical claims such as ‘organic‘ or ‘fair trade‘ were perceived to have better nutritional content than similar products without the ethical claims. Read more
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Check out Comedy
A pretty hilarious take on how real life check outs would be if they were like online checkouts. (originally viewed at integershoppingmarketing.com
Now although this is tongue in cheek, there was a comment on the original article that gave me pause. Mpaskal said..
While this is hysterical and very accurate, I haven’t yet come to expect the same experience online that I have at retail. I shop online for things I don’t need immediately and require a higher involvement level (easier to do extensive research and comparison).When I go to the store, I expect some human interaction and a very simple checkout process. But I think that’s a great way to think about enhancing the online shopping experience… Read more
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Nutrition Rating Systems – the problem and a solution
The Situation
There has been a lot of attention given to nutrition rating systems of late, fueled by the launch of the controversial Smart Choices rating system. The controversy of the smart choices program, in brief, is that the criteria for what gets labelled a ¨smart choice¨ seem somewhat flimsy. For instance Marion Nestle examines the ¨smart choice¨ Froot Loops in this post here.
In fact there is no shortage of concerned debate about this program, least of which is the fact that manufacturers pay for the smart choice tick. Below I have provided links to some of the recent top hits.
NYT: Industry Backed Label calls sugary cereal a ¨smart choice¨
Letter from the FDA to Smart Choices Program
Marion Nestle: Reply from the American Society of Nutrition
In this post we explore the existing rating systems, the problem with these systems and propose a solution. We are keen to hear your perspective on this. Read more
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Progressive Grocer wants to know about H&W initiatives
A recent post, on Progressive Grocer’s recently launched community site Aisle Chatter, titled In-Store H&W, asks retailers and marketers to ¨let us know about [H&W] programs you are instituting in your stores¨. The post explores the different ways in which retailers are addressing H&W and hopes to do so in more detail following submissions on information about different initives out there.
We feel this could an interesting opportunity to share and learn about different projects and so have provided our information and hope that you will too.
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Building Loyalty with Health & Wellness
A recent article posted in Progressive Grocer in September and written originally by Jeff Weidauer, VP of marketing, Vestcom International peaked my interest. He raises some very valid points which I will outline below as well as providing some of my own thoughts. (click here for a PDF version of the article)
Overview:
The article discusses the benefits for grocers in providing Health and Wellness (H&W) solutions to their customers, the primary benefit being increased loyalty. The article states that the two main trends leading towards this are:
- Increased demand for H&W information
- The inherent trust the consumer places on their local grocer (apprently more than their own GP)
To this I would add:
- The increased availability and affordability of H&W programs for the retailer
The major benefit gained from running a successul H&W program is increased customer loyalty as the article states; ¨Because loyalty is created from a bond with your shoppers that is more than just price. It’s a natural result of providing the products, services and information that shoppers need in an increasingly complex world.¨ Read more
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FoodEssentials Data Overview
We’ve had a fair few questions about our data scans so I thought i’d address it in a quick post. The questions and comments generally fall in to 3 categories. The scope of the data, the accuracy of the data, and the geographic limitations of the data.
Data Scope:
We presently have a base database of 160k commercially available products and are continually working to increase the size and relevance of this database. At present, it is largely products available in general supermarkets and therefore will rarely, if ever, return results for products in specialty stores such as WholeFoods or Trader Joe’s. However, we hope to address this by capturing more data. Read more
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Non-Nutritive Sweeteners by Food Category
Overview
Over the past few years Non-Nutritive Sweeteners have been a hot topic. As a group of ingredients they are, at times, considered controversial (due to a chemical origin) or heralded as a solution to the obesity epidemic (when extracted from a natural product). Either way, they have attracted a lot of attention and products are frequently re-formulated with a new Non-Nutritive Sweetener in response to the latest trend.
For this reason, we feel that this would be an interesting place to start a new series that will explore the distribution of Non-Nutritive Sweeteners throughout the Food Categories. We will begin with an overview of the distribution of Non-Nutritive Sweeteners and identify opportunities for further study which will determine the nature of further posts. Read more
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Non-Nutritive Sweeteners and Added Sugars: A Comparison of Food Categories
Overview
Following on from our original post – Non-Nutritive Sweeteners by Food Category – a subject that was identified for future investigation was the relationship between non-nutritive sweeteners and added sugar ingredients. This post will investigate this relationship, concentrating in particular on the combination of the two sets of ingredients and their food category distribution.
Read more
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Aisle50 – Groupon for food
Aisle 50 is a new company that’s doing some pretty exciting things. Billing itself as the best way to save on your groceries, Aisle 50 is essentially a Groupon for food, offering up to 50% discounts on various food products.
Techcrunch explains how it works:
But there are some key differences. For one, these deals are being offered by the item’s manufacturer, rather than the retailer. And the way customers actually go about redeeming their coupons is different as well. Here’s how the process works (I’ll use a recent deal Aisle50 had featuring Chobani yogurts as an example): Read more
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Changing face of Retail – a threat to grocers?
It’s an amazing period that we’re in right now, that we can witness the considerable changes that are affecting massive industries in real time right in front of our eyes. See: search engines for the publishing industry; iTunes, Pandora, and YouTube for the music industry; Amazon for the retail industry. The pace at which these changes are taking place is impressive and can sometimes leave us confused as to which trends are lasting and which are not.
Three recent developments in the retail industry, we believe, are indications of what’s to come and will form the basis of considerable future change. Read more
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- 2012 – the year of mobile convergence for retailers?
- Mobile apps not a silver bullet?
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- Aisle50 – Groupon for food
- Building Loyalty with Health & Wellness
