Notes and Thoughts on Grocery 2.0

We just stumbled across a great post from a NJ blogger named Valerie who tried OGS for the first time. Thanks, Valerie, for the terrific review…frankly we couldn’t agree more!  She even snapped a great shot of the ShopRite from Home van (right) pulling up outside her house!

Gotta love her list of top reasons she’s an OGS fan…(drum roll please)

Here’s why I think ShopRite At Home rocks:

• I could shop in my pajamas. (I didn’t, but I could.)
• I didn’t have to leave the house to go to the store. No going out in the rain.
• I didn’t have to wait on any lines.
• I didn’t have to load the car with the groceries.
• I didn’t have to unload the car and carry any bags in.
• I didn’t have to nag RB or TJ to carry bags in.
• I got flowers. Well not just me – all first time customers get them.

It’s great to read about how OGS is making this busy mom’s life a bit easier…Thanks, Valerie!

-Alison

Come by booth #656 to chat with MyWebGrocer this year at the Marketechnics Show being held at the Dallas TX Convention Center.  We’ll be around from May 6th-8th.  Stop by to learn what services MyWebGrocer has to help your business succeed in eGrocery!

Brandkeys ran a survey and found that consumers are making their buying decisions based on perceived brand value ahead of costs. This includes store brands as well as products. The survey was done in recently in the current economy so it is interesting that customers are still loyal to brands that provide value before lower price only.

So this sets up a great environment for expanding loyalty programs including online channels. Think about your loyalty and how to expand it because from this survey, consumers are watching.

Here is a link to Brandweek’s e-magazine article:
http://www.brandweek.com/bw/content_display/news-and-features/direct/e3i615140fc749e4798117296a07597b88e?imw=Y

Kellogg’s is the world’s leading producer of cereal and a leading producer of convenience foods. MyWebGrocer’s objective was to increase sales in Kellogg’s snack category.

Solution: Kellogg’s eBusiness team partnered with MyWebGrocer to target moms, a key demographic, to drive incremental sales and build brand loyalty.

Kellogg’s snack campaign ran from August to December of 2008. Kellogg’s utilized MyWebGrocer’s targeted daily recipe and weekly specials emails to promote the August Fuel for School campaign and featured snack products.

MyWebGrocer designed nearly 300 creatives to serve across the network. MyWebGrocer optimized creative weekly to improve click through rates and influence sales. Rotating creative allowed MyWebGrocer to emphasize products based on factors including seasonality and new flavor introductions.

MyWebGrocer created unique landing pages featuring Kellogg’s products that enabled online users to add products to their lists and to purchase products.

Results: In 2008, Kellogg’s snacks sold on MyWebGrocer increased 81% over the previous year almost double the initial goal.

Kamela Warren, eBusiness Manager: “Kellogg’s online advertising with MyWebGrocer has shown double-digit product sales growth online from 2007 to 2008. The ability to track and report sales enable us to test and forecast what works in online grocery.”

-Cheers
Courtney

Today with the addition of Peapod to our network we now serve 93 Retailers who do more than $90 Billion dollars in grocery sales. Putting us second to only WalMart in terms of reach and impact. In the last six months alone we have added $46 Billion dollars from partners such as Delhaize, A&P, Big Y, Piggly Wiggly, Roche Brothers, Lunds, and now Peapod.

Why the acceleration? There is no single reason but a convergence of powerful forces that are driving consumers, retailers, and manufacturers to digital solutions:

1. Increasing Consumer Usage with 94% of US consumers shopping online and online grocery shopping penetration increasing we now have best in class stores with online sales at 10% of store volume.
2. Changing Grocery Market with Non-grocer retailers (e.g. Wal-Mart, Club, Amazon) taking market share retailers are looking to “lock in” and expand their most valuable customers. The average online order is $140 and increasing with best in class retailers seeing $160+ baskets.
3. Digital is Easier. For the consumer who is time pressed but dollar savvy, for the retailer who can leverage tools such as email, online circulars, and online shopping to a better ROI, and the manufacturer who faced with the massive media fragmentation can find millions of consumers in one place shopping just for groceries.

This trend is only going to accelerate as we move into 2009. Remember your local book store? They were hit by the same tidal wave of forces only for many of them to close shop unable to cope with the sudden and dramatic change. Retail Grocery is at a similar inflection point and our goal at MWG is to navigate these changing waters to enable our partners to win.

Alec Newcomb