Small chain thinks big with personalized promotions

Marc’s, a 58-store deep-discounter of grocery, health and beauty products and other items, is providing targeted recommendations with help from national partners.



The Cleveland-based retailer is teaming up with Allrecipes to introduce in-store beacon-triggered experiences that provide shoppers with personalized meal recommendations through the Allrecipes Dinner Spinner app. In-store notifications are triggered on shoppers’ smartphones by a Verifone beacon system running on the Footmarks SmartConnect proximity platform.



The hyper-local beacon triggered notifications are delivered to Allrecipes Dinner Spinner app users on their smartphones upon entering a Marc’s store, providing the shopper with meal recommendations trending among local home cooks along with recipes featuring products on sale at that particular Marc’s store.



Heightened relevancy to shoppers is further provided by considering the season and local weather to determine appropriate meal ideas. In addition, brands have the opportunity to deliver targeted promotions within the app. So far, results include a 50% increase in app usage in designated areas of Marc’s stores and a click-through rate for in-store notifications of 6.43%, more than double the 2.7% average click-through rate for mobile search.



“Marc’s and our chain of stores are excited to be a part of this collaborative effort that brings together meal solutions, the grocery experience, and digital to the forefront of our customers’ shopping experience” said Day Armelli, marketing director for Marc’s. “We anticipate this will open up additional doors that allow us to deliver greater value to our customers by helping them make the most out of their in-store shopping experience.”



With most customers carrying smartphones and downloading third-party apps, even smaller retailers like Marc’s have the opportunity to leverage existing infrastructure and software to easily deliver targeted mobile promotions. Beacon technology is also becoming commonplace and does not require extensive implementation, further easing the way for chains of all sizes to offer a highly personalized in-store experience.