Groceryshop 2019 Highlights

9/20/2019
More than 3,000 attendees — including 180 CEOs from 1,450 plus companies — flocked to Las Vegas for the second annual Groceryshop event, which was held September 15-18 at the Venetian hotel. Focused on innovation in the grocery and CPG spaces, Groceryshop was founded by the team that also created Shoptalk.

The attendees included established as well as startup CPG brands, and retailers from across the industry, ranging from supermarkets, warehouse clubs and discount stores to pure e-commerce players and non-traditional grocery merchants. They were joined by tech companies, real-estate operators, investors and analysts, with everyone focused on the trends, technologies and new business models that will them succeed in a market that is being transformed at nearly even level by rapid and profound changes.

The program was wide-ranging, with numerous keynotes and breakout educational sessions. Here are just a few of the insights that were shared during the four days of Groceryshop.

John Furner, CEO, Sam’s Club:
“The consumer is healthy. People are continuing to trade up to premium products. That tells me consumers are feeling pretty good.”

“If our fresh food department is running well. Typically the whole club is running well.”

• Luke Jensen, CEO, Ocado Solutions:
“As the [online] market grows, the in-store fulfillment model becomes more and more difficult. When you fulfill from a fulfillment center, the more you grow the business, the better the economics.”

“Don’t think of e-commerce as a channel. Think of it as a catalyst to transform grocery for the better by addressing such issues as food waste, employment and delivering a better customer experience all around.”

“Waste as a percentage of sales at a traditional retailer is 2.5%. At ocado.com, we have reduced it to 0.7%."

• Stephanie Lundquist, executive VP and president of food and beverage, Target:
“Our goal in grocery is to be Target. Food and beverage should be part of the magic Target experience.”

“Our experience has been that new [Target] owned brands lift entire categories.”

• Chieh Huang, co-founder and CEO, Boxed:
“A fully integrated, tap-to-delivery platform is the only long-term solution for e-commerce.”

• Barnaby Montgomery, Co-Founder/CEO Yummy:
“We didn’t go the VC route. When you raise capital, there is a fuse attached to it. I didn’t know if that fuse would provide us with enough time.”

“Customers feel comfortable ordering online from us because they see we have stores in their community. Our stores support our online business and vice versa. Our unit economics work online and in store, which is why we’re a profitable business.”

• Katherine Black, KPMG:
“When it comes to driving the ‘extra mile’ to shop, “Aldi and Trader Joe’s are over-indexing.”

• David Marcotte, senior VP cross-border, cross-industry & technology, Kantar:

“Aging people will be in smart homes and smart homes will be shopping. Are you prepared to market to the smart home?

“Driverless trucking is important. We have a shortage of 75,000 drivers in this country. And we can’t look to other countries like we have in the past because both Canada and Mexico are dealing with big driver shortages as well."

• Carolyn Tastad, group president of North America at Procter & Gamble:
“Being high-tech isn’t enough. Brands also need to become more high-touch.”

“Transparency has become a fundamental principle. We build trust when we offer it and erode trust when we don’t.”
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