Notes and Thoughts on Grocery 2.0

MyWebGrocer Media connected with more than 2.7 million unique users in September, making it the single largest online grocery destination, according to comScore’s data. The rapidly growing ad network has more than doubled in size in the past year.*

The Largest Online Grocery Audience

The Nielsen Company recently reported** that, in July of 2009, more than 13 million U.S. Internet users visited a grocery site. With 2.7 unique monthly users, MyWebGrocer Media represents the web’s largest online grocery audience, roughly 21% of the online grocery population.  MyWebGrocer Media is a top destination among online food enthusiasts, with more unique monthly visitors than both Yahoo! Food and Epicurious.com, as measured by comScore.

Active and Engaged Users

Not only is MyWebGrocer Media’s audience big, its users are highly engaged. The average MyWebGrocer shopper spends 11.9 minutes on the network and views 28 pages of content (October 2009).

“Consumers in our network are highly engaged and purchase-motivated,” said Alec Newcomb, EVP, MyWebGrocer.  “By the time they arrive at one of our 90 grocery retail sites, they are cementing their grocery purchase decisions. They are creating shopping lists that will be printed out and taken with them to the grocery store, or increasingly, completing their purchase online and picking them up,” Newcomb adds.

Driving Results for CPG Brands

Over 60 CPG Advertisers agree that MyWebGrocer Media is a highly effective way to reach consumers including leading brands: “Kellogg’s online advertising with MyWebGrocer has shown double digit product sales growth. The ability to track and report sales enables us to test and forecast what works in online grocery.”                 -Kamela Warren, E-Business Manager, Kellogg’s

*MWG media had 1,173,00 unique visitors in Sept. 08 according to comScore Media Builder, and 2,736,000 in Sept. 09 according to comScore Media Metrix – an increase of 133%.

**The Nielsen Company. “Online Grocery Shopping: Ripe Timing for Resurgence.” September 2009

I remember my mother sitting on the living room floor on Sundays, spread out with the weekly circular in front of her, planning our family’s shopping list for the week.

“Woo hoo! Another deal! Special K–two for one this week!” she’d announce gloriously, while clipping out the coupon and adding it to the collection she carried around in a tattered envelope in her purse. “Woo hoo! Fifty cents off Quilted Northern!”

Flash forward 25 years, and here I am doing the very same thing…on my iPhone.

Yesterday, MyWebGrocer and ShopRite launched the very first weekly specials iPhone App. We’re all very excited about it here at MWG because it’s a product we all believe in and use personally.

Click on image below view a video demo of the App

The App is the latest incarnation of MyWebGrocer’s efforts to make ShopRite’s customers’ lives easier. It functions as a portable circular and invites consumers to “start saving” before they even arrive at the store by browsing hundreds of items instantly. Among its many groundbreaking features, ShopRite Weekly Specials enables consumers to see what’s on sale in real time at their regular ShopRite store. Once they select an item, it literally tumbles into their shopping list, which is neatly organized by category with pictures, descriptions and real time prices. The App syncs and downloads store specials directly to an iPhone or iPod Touch and can even sync with customers’ shopping lists at ShopRite.com.

At the gym this morning, while plugging along on an excercise bike, I put together a dinner menu for tomorrow night based on the current sale items at ShopRite . I planned the meal around what’s on sale, and I was able to stay within budget my because the App gave me a running total of my basket price. When I got to the office, I printed out a paper copy of my list, and I will stop at the store tonight and pick up my groceries after work. I saved myself time and money, all while burning calories on the bike! I felt so good I added a box of chololate cookies to my shopping list…hey! I’d earned it!

Our App doesn’t try to be “all things to all people…” and I like that. This App focuses on what I want to know: what’s on sale at my local store. It’s simple and efficient and it gets the job done.

Twenty-five years later, I am “clipping coupons” just like mom. As I click around on my iPhone, I can understand the excitement she felt there on the living room floor clipping for “deals.” And I’m doing it from the gym…bonus.

So I might as well just say it: I am turning into my mother. Woo-hoo!

-Alison

On Wednesday, August 5, 2009, Stripes Group completed a $13 million equity investment in MyWebGrocer Inc., a rapidly growing and profitable Colchester, VT‐based software‐as‐a‐service company providing leading regional and national grocery store chains and consumer packaged goods companies with online commerce and digital media services. As part of their unique platform, MyWebGrocer operates the nation’s largest grocery ad network with over 4 million monthly shoppers.

DanMarriott, Managing Partner of Stripes Group, will be joining the MyWebGrocer Board of Directors.

About Stripes Group:

Stripes Group, founded in 2003 and based in New York, is a private investment firm focused on growth stage minority and majority investments in rapidly growing and profitable internet, software‐as‐a‐service, technology‐enabled services and consumer products companies. Stripes Group typically partners with founder‐owned and operated companies that have had no prior institutional investors.  For more information on Stripes Group, visit www.stripesgroup.com.

About MyWebGrocer, Inc.:
MyWebGrocer, founded in 1999 and based in Colchester, VT, is a founder‐owned and managed software‐as‐a‐service company providing online commerce, communications and digital media services to leading grocery store chains and consumer packaged goods companies while also operating the nation’s largest grocery ad network. MyWebGrocer has been profitable nearly since inception and has established itself as the leader in the industry with over 5,000 grocery stores nationwide using their platform and over 60 globally recognized brands, including Kelloggs, Unilever, Nestle and P&G, reaching 4 million monthly shoppers on their industry‐leading grocery ad network.

A recent story on “This Week.com” highlighted MyWebGrocer’s client Buehler’s Fresh Foods for their online grocery shopping service.

A new location in Delaware is now offering the online shopping service and it has been more than well received:

Photo By By Ann Tormet/ThisWeek courtesy of ThisWeek.com

“As she loads groceries, Vance said she is often thanked by the customer.

‘They love it,’ Vance said. ‘They don’t like shopping.’

‘I had a lady who came in the other night all the way from Westerville,’ Conley added.

The first shopping experience is free, said Deb McKee, service and facilities manager of the Delaware Buehler’s. After that, the cost is $7.95 per order or $24.95 for unlimited shopping within a 30-day period.”

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The Burlington Free Press recently ran a story on how “Companies get social with marketing”.  One major take away, if it can work for grocery it can and will work for your business.

MyWebGrocer was the feature for this story:

“Facebook and Twitter are fun, but they can also make a business thrive.

So say Alec Newcomb, vice president of MyWebGrocer, and Rebecca Roose, a project manager with the Colchester firm. MyWebGrocer provides digital services for leading retail grocers such as Shoprite, Lowes Food Stores, Big Y and Food Lion. Newcomb said the lessons he’s learned helping grocery chains can apply to almost any business.

Social media helps level the playing field, Newcomb said. There’s no need to spend thousands of dollars on an ad campaign when a business can use social media to do its bidding.”

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