Northeastern grocer provides omnichannel ad access to suppliers

Tops Friendly Markets is increasing the ability of its brand partners to directly reach its customers, on- and offline.

The Williamsville, N.Y.-based grocery chain is expanding its use of the Inmar Intelligence Retail Cloud platform to include targetable and attributable on-site and off-site media at scale for its supplier partners. Leveraging these additional capabilities as a part of its Tops Shopper Link Digital Media Network, Tops will provide suppliers with access to ad placements on topsmarkets.com, shopper-targeted off-site ad placements across programmatic media, and paid social and real-time sales reporting at the UPC level.

Tops Markets currently utilizes Inmar Intelligence technology for shopper incentives and loyalty, integrating digital promotions into supplier campaigns. The retailer’s expanded use of the Retail Cloud solution will enable Tops to offer and execute integrated programs across incentives and media. As a result, the retailer hopes to drive customer engagement and sales while further accelerating its digital transformation. 

By directly connecting brands and advertisers to its customers via an omnichannel ad ecosystem, Tops is following in the footsteps of larger grocery competitors including Walmart and Kroger.

Inmar Intelligence’s Retail Cloud is powered by ShopperSync, a data intelligence platform that enables retailers to leverage their first-party, anonymized transactional data across all media and promotions channels in their network while managing permissions and governance rights. 

“We are excited to introduce Tops Shopper Link, in partnership with Inmar Intelligence, to connect the great brands and services we offer in our 162 Tops stores and on TopsMarkets.com with our 2 million qualified shoppers at the moment they are interacting online,” said Diane Colgan, senior VP with Tops. “This digital media network will help these brands amplify and extend their marketing strategies with us in an efficient way and while building to mutual sales benefits.”

Tops Markets LLC operates 157 full-service supermarkets with five additional franchise stores in upstate New York, northern Pennsylvania, and Vermont.