Notes and Thoughts on Grocery 2.0

In the last six months MyWebGrocer’s customer reach has grown 40%, to 3.8 million monthly grocery shoppers.  This expanded consumer demand has seen a matching growth in CPG programs running on the network. To meet this demand, MyWebGrocer’s advertising team has promoted Helen Earling to lead an expanding Midwest team.

Helen Earling joined the MyWebGrocer team in October 2007 with a decade of industry knowledge and experience.  Her continued success and leadership has lead to her recent promotion to Senior Vice President of Western Ad Sales.  Earling has been instrumental in helping MyWebGrocer’s key Midwest advertisers, Kellogg’s and General Mills.

“Helen has been a driving force in MyWebGrocer’s continued success and I’m excited about her building out an expanded team in Minnesota to better serve our Western customers.”  Alec Newcomb, Vice President, MyWebGrocer.

The expanded office is located in Minnetonka, Minnesota and includes a new team member, Colleen Pruyn. Pruyn’s background includes work in broadcasting and media advertising fields.

With the shift in media spend from offline to online advertising, MyWebGrocer will continue its rapid expansion.  MyWebGrocer’s grocery network now reaches 3.8 million grocery shoppers every month.

Foodtown of New Jersey has launched its new online channel with industry leader, MyWebGrocer. Their new revamped online presence includes foodtown.com and freshtown.com. Foodtown and Freshtown previous websites have been updated with a new fresh look and offer the online user more functionality. This functionality will now include MyWebGrocer’s interactive circular, shopping list, online grocery shopping, recipe engine, email marketing, consumer profile management, and coupons. In addition to these services, Foodtown will be joining MyWebGrocer’s national advertising network.

Their new online channel will consolidate and fully integrate all the functionality on the foodtown.com and freshtown.com websites. Removing the silos of functionality that have been in place will create a much for user friendly and functionally rich experience for the consumer.

“Foodtown is in one of the most competitive online grocery markets in the country”, explains Patty Youchock, Director of Advertising and Marketing of Foodtown. “Our new partnership with MyWebGrocer will allows us to compete in a way that was just not possible in the past”.

Curt Alpeter, Sr. Vice President, Sales for MyWebGrocer comments, “MyWebGrocer is thrilled to bring Foodtown into the family of Retailers that we partner with for ecommerce and online marketing tools. They are also a great addition to the online advertising network and will further solidify our strong East Coast presence”.

MyWebGrocer announces that Peapod, serving 14 major US markets, is joining the MyWebGrocer Ad Network. With the addition of Peapod, the majority of retail Grocery Ecommerce transactions occur within the MyWebGrocer Advertising Network.

The addition of Peapod, Peapod by Stop&Shop, and Peapod by Giant to the ninety other leading retailers on the network means that the network now has significant store density in the key New York, Chicago, Washington DC, and Boston DMA’s.

“The addition of Peapod, who has set the bar in e-commerce, is a significant milestone in our Ad Network’s rapid growth” explains Rich Tarrant, CEO of MyWebGrocer. “In less than a year we have demonstrated the power for our network to drive sales at the digital shelf for both retailers and CPG manufacturers. If a brand manager wants to communicate with online grocery shoppers, then the MyWebGrocer advertising network is the place to find them with credit card in hand.”

“We believe that the targeted nature of grocery specific advertisements within the MyWebGrocer Ad Network will be of value to our Peapod customers”, said John Burchard, Senior Vice President of Peapod. “In addition, Peapod’s website, with its large base of active online grocery shoppers, will be an attractive destination for CPG manufacturers to engage with consumers. We are very excited to pursue an advertising partnership with MyWebGrocer.”

About Peapod
Founded in 1989 as a smart shopping option for busy people, Peapod today stands as the country’s leading Internet grocer, serving 14 U.S. markets including the metro areas of Chicago, Milwaukee, Boston, Suburban N.Y. and Washington, D.C., and communities in the states of Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Virginia and Rhode Island. The Skokie, Illinois-based company, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Royal Ahold in The Netherlands, has achieved over 13 million deliveries since its late 1980s inception. For more information on Peapod, call 1.800.5.PEAPOD (573.2763); e-mail service@peapod.com or visit www.peapod.com.

About MyWebGrocer
MyWebGrocer was one of the first to launch online Software as a Service for retail grocers in 1999. MyWebGrocer increases basket size, acquires new customers, retains current customers, and drives revenue in-store and online business for their clients. MyWebGrocer has the largest grocery advertising network in the country covering 85% of the US, earning their clients direct ad revenue. Some of their clients include Shoprite, Lowes Food Stores, Big Y, Food Lion and 90 other leading grocery chains. For more information please visit www.mywebgrocer.com or call 1-888-662-2284.

MyWebGrocer Celebrates One Year Anniversary with Record Numbers

MyWebGrocer has grown during 2008 to be the largest grocery advertising network in the US by providing relevant, timely and measurable impact on 90 grocery retailer’s web sites.

MyWebGrocer’s advertising network hosts some of the biggest names in the consumer packaged good industries including industry leaders like Kellogg’s. Kellogg’s has been an early MyWebGrocer advertising client that has had great success explains Kamela Warren E-Business Customer Manager, “Kellogg’s online advertising with MyWebGrocer has shown double digit product sales growth online from 2007-2008. The ability to track and report sales enable us to test and forecast what works in online grocery.”

Over 170 branded advertisers found success on the MyWebGrocer Ad Network in 2008. “Our ability to reach 3.5 Million grocery shoppers a month combined with our measurable consumer insights has driven our clients’ success in 2008,” said Alec Newcomb the Vice President who runs the MWG Ad Network.

Advertisers aren’t the only ones benefiting from the success of the Ad Network. MyWebGrocer’s retail grocer clients have also materially benefited from the Ad program as space on their websites becomes real estate available for revenue generating opportunities. Since 47% of the consumers who click on a banner purchase an item; the Ad Network drives both sales and new revenue for Retail partners. Some of these retailers include ShopRite, Lowes Foods, and most recently Roche Bros.

July 29 2008, Colchester VT: According to Quantcast, MyWebGrocer’s network is now ranked in the top 2000 most visited sites based on monthly visitors. MyWebGrocer’s network has 956,865 visitors worldwide on a monthly basis.

“We have climbed into the top 2000 in under 3 months.” Explains Tim Kenney MyWebGrocer’s Chief Operations Officer, “Grocery shoppers are rapidly adopting web tools to plan their meals, look for specials, build their shopping lists, and increasingly complete their shopping online. We expect to be in the top 1000 very soon as we expand the network of participating sites and shoppers continue to drive up traffic. The increased website traffic is fueling the expansion of our advertising business. Our ad network offers a unique way to get timely information in front of users focused on grocery shopping. Each month an increasing number of large consumer packaged goods firms are using our network to reach consumers.”

MyWebGrocer’s advertising network is divided into two categories based on where the ads are displayed; the e-commerce side of retail sites, and the grocery chain’s home page. The e-commerce side of the site is specifically reserved for product brands sold at that location; the home page is open to advertising for products not necessarily sold by that chain. Ads on the e-commerce side display a list of items sold by that retail vendor. Ads on the home page can direct the customer to the manufacturer’s website or landing page. MyWebGrocer creates highly targeted advertising campaigns for consumer packaged goods firms and other businesses related to retail grocery.

Becoming one of the top 2000 most visited networks is beneficial for current advertisers on the MyWebGrocer network, including Kellogg’s, Upromise, and Kashi. As more people visit the network, the more exposure these advertisements will receive.