What’s next? CART helps retailers find the answer

A new marketplace has launched with the goal of helping retailers and suppliers keep up with the blistering pace of innovation that is transforming their world.



Advancingretail.org is the Web address of a new marketplace platform where retailers and brand manufacturers – for free – can discover, learn about and connect with a wide range of solutions providers to help grow their business. The new platform spent roughly 18 months in beta testing but launched recently with about 3,000 solutions, according to Gary Hawkins, CEO of the Center for Advancing Retail Technology (CART).



Hawkins was the long time CEO of the independent Green Hills supermarket in Syracuse, New York, and often used his high-volume store as a lab to experiment with the retail industry’s newest innovations. He later became a consultant and was involved in the creation and rollout of Kroger’s loyalty program, and worked with brand powerhouses such as Procter & Gamble and Unilever on collaboration initiatives that gave rise to the shopper marketing movement. About five years ago, Hawkins founded CART as a vehicle to take the concept of testing new technologies he had employed at Green Hills to a larger market.



“It has become nearly impossible to stay abreast of all the innovation coming into the marketplace,” Hawkins said. “What CART does is help retailers of any size discover and understand the innovation because technology is fueling innovation and innovation is speeding up.”



That’s where Advancingretail.org comes in, with what Hawkins describes as the largest collection of retail solutions in the world. The platform was launched in partnership with the National Grocers Association (NGA), Retail World Alliance, the American Beverage Consortium, Certco Wholesale and Unified Grocers.



“Just as easily as you can search your smartphone for the latest apps, users can search CART for the latest retail solutions and connect with them through a single click,” Hawkins said.



Solution providers who list on CART’s Advancingretail.org platform will find the experience similar to Google. A simple listing is free, but there are fees associated with other listing types and to secure priority placement in search results.



Advancingretail.org is already garnering praise from those in the supermarket channel.



“CART has helped us identify important new innovative solutions that can provide deep insights into shopper behavior to help grow our business,” said Michael Moore, chief marketing officer of Lowes Foods, a Winston-Salem, North Carolina-based supermarket chain with 97 stores. “The CART platform helps us understand and stay abreast of new capabilities coming into the industry.”



At grocery wholesaler Unified Grocers, VP of Retail Services and Technology Mike Brown views the new platform as a major benefit to the independent food retailers the company serves in the Western U.S.



“There have been dramatic changes in the use of consumer-level technologies in recent years and the CART platform gives our members the ability to quickly find and understand solutions that are recommended by Unified,” Brown said.



As a long-time retail and consumer packaged goods executive, CART founder Hawkins shares the sentiment of many in the industry when it comes to the pace of change and its implications.



“The retail industry is undergoing a transformation the likes of which has never been seen before,” said Hawkins. “Two things are different this time. The first is that innovation is occurring in every part of retail simultaneously, not concentrated in one area as was often the case in the past. Second, the pace of innovation is continuously growing. There are no breathers or time-outs for industry leaders.”