The Grocery Playground: Embrace Smart Solutions, Solve New Challenges
By Katie Hotze, Founder & CEO, Grocery Shopii
Welcome to the perfect conundrum in digital grocery. The shifting sands of consumer behavior in a post-pandemic market have left grocers bewildered as to what the shopper actually wants. As I write this, I own the fact that I am “her” - that early-40s hyper-busy mom who’s raising tiny humans and is a key target persona for grocers. Why? Because I will spend a boatload for convenience, now more than I ever have before. So as a builder of tech solutions in grocery, I have a unique advantage as I know what women want.
The tech startup ecosystem for grocery retail is one of the coolest playgrounds to hang out in as everyone keeps disrupting, bundling, and evolving to better serve an industry that isn’t known for its technology prowess. We are all dialed into the insatiable appetite shoppers now have for convenience, spawned from years of social distancing. And we’re working hard to leverage the post-pandemic American pass-time of staring at Tik-Tok instead of doing...well...anything. Let’s monetize this!
Every retailer is unique, yet there is a rapidly growing divide between companies that are shopper intelligent and companies that are not. For shoppers, the battle artillery deployed to capture their attention has become greatly sophisticated. Evolutions in the deployment of AI and ML plus added features like automation, rewards, and direct integrations into the shopping cart are all game changers.
Let’s unpack the greatest digital opportunities that grocery retailers should focus on right now.
- Use speed as your competitive advantage. Thoughtful automation combined with assumptions from previous purchase history will deliver the personalization shoppers expect while winning on precious time-saving value. Push the limits here – where and how can you expedite the online shopping process? To quote one of our favorite customer discovery interviews at Grocery Shopii, “I don’t care what brand the diced tomatoes are, just put them in the cart!”
- Digital engagement drives conversion. Tik Tok and Instagram deliver fresh recipe content every second, so when a shopper sees that same Caramel Bundt Cake on your website a second time, you’ve lost them forever. But, when you deliver dynamic, engaging content on your home page, we find that their return rate will quadruple. In an industry plagued by cart abandonment, the lesson here is for your retailer’s homepage to be more like social media and less like...a grocery store.
- Shoppable video is on fire. Raise your hand if you’ve bought something random on Instagram in the last 90 days! Me too! Leverage this impulse opportunity to earn new product trials while capturing golden learnings for your social and digital teams. Industry leaders in this space are seeing a 10x lift in conversion with video. A great place to start is by partnering with the food bloggers who are already creating recipes for your stores – they are super savvy with social media and they know the young mom shopping online better than you do.
What will define the winners from the losers in digital grocery is a retailer’s ability and willingness to test and learn with new technology. Piloting with tech disrupters is essential to leapfrogging the competition.
What will define the winners from the losers in digital grocery is a retailer’s ability and willingness to test and learn with new technology. Piloting with tech disrupters is essential to leapfrogging the competition, yet so many retailers are sluggish on this topic. Make sure you’re walking the tradeshow floors enough to locate those startups – when they’re ready to pilot with you, they’ll startup popping up at industry shows.
It’s such an awesome time to build upon the learnings of those who thought they had an early-mover advantage. The retail environment for grocers is ripe for smart solutions to consumer problems, and your assignment now is to find those emerging tech solutions that will get you further, faster. Now go forth and conquer.
The State of the GROCERY INDUSTRY 2023
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Katie Hotze is the CEO and Founder of Grocery Shopii, a Charlotte-based tech startup that uses machine learning to fuel online grocery shopping with fresh recipe content. With 20 years of experience in digital marketing, data analytics, and business strategy, Katie was able to turn a personal frustration with online grocery shopping into a nationally-recognized retail tech disrupter that’s rapidly expanding in North America.
Founded in 2019, Grocery Shopii was developed to breathe new life into the commercial grocery industry. Continuously filled with fresh, chef-inspired recipes sourced from top food bloggers and brands, the platform not only streamlines meal planning but also reduces grocery shopping from hours to minutes–all from the device of your choice.
Prior to launching Grocery Shopii, Katie worked in management and technology consulting for two decades, leading global marketing teams at Mercer and BearingPoint. She broke away from her corporate career in 2018 to work for herself, giving her the much-needed time, energy, and motivation to finish her M.B.A. while building the Grocery Shopii offering and business model.
After a year of developing the solution with the help of UNC-Charlotte’s Ventureprise customer discovery startup incubator, the Grocery Shopii platform was named the industry’s “Best Tech Application of 2019” by Progressive Grocer.
An RIS Top 10 Women in Grocery Tech, Katie holds an M.B.A. from William & Mary, and a B.S. in Marketing from Virginia Commonwealth University. She is an active member of the FMI Technology Leadership Council as well as the Western Michigan University Food Marketing Program board. Katie currently resides in Davidson, N.C., where Grocery Shopii keeps a corporate office, and is an active member of the city’s burgeoning tech community.