The grocery segment is one of the hottest in the retail industry. Once considered a laggard, grocers have caught up with the leaders and continue to earmark large investments to redefine the customer experience and infuse the path to purchase with new digital capabilities. Overall, Walmart and Kroger remained the top leaders in the US grocery market in 2019, with a combined market share of roughly 30%, which is largely unchanged since 2017, according to UBS. But hard discounters are expected to ramp up pricing pressure this year by aggressively opening new stores, while regional chains continue to gain market share. And grocers can only wait and see what else Amazon has in store for 2020, having just opened its first, full-size, cashierless Amazon Go Grocery store in February. There is still room for smaller grocery chains to thrive, but as we learned from the recent bankruptcy declarations of Earth Fare, Lucky’s Market and Fairway, organic and local are table stakes now and not a source of growth. Grocery retailers are investing heavily in digital capabilities and beefing up their tech firepower with robotic technologies, artificial intelligence, computer vision, inventory management, mobile experiences and more. Meanwhile, fast free delivery and improved click-and-collect experiences are reshaping how consumers shop for groceries. Smaller chains must be savvy in their investments if they intend to keep up with the national powerhouses, or at least capture a respectable share of the $678 billion grocery market. 42% Grocery retailers said staying current with technology is a key concern keeping them up at night. Grocers report 17% of total sales today can be attributed to digital efforts. This success has led grocers to expand deployment of next-gen digital experiences and technologies Source: RIS News
