Despite fluctuations in the economy over the past few years, inflation growth is at least under control for the moment. Additionally, consumer spending continues to remain healthy, and grocery retail is seeing many growth opportunities on the horizon. In fact, Amazon is betting big on grocery retail tech and convenience in 2023 and beyond. As evidenced by the company’s recent statements, Amazon is doubling-down on its efforts with its Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh concept stores.
Both of these ideas got hampered by the pandemic. Still, Amazon plans to revisit and revitalize both stores by opening new locations and revamping the selection and customer experience at Go and Fresh locations. Amazon Go stores famously allow shoppers to pick up items and walk out. The stores utilize advanced cameras that track movement and even the positioning of each shopper’s body to track purchases. No physical POS exists in Amazon Go stores, and customers are automatically billed for purchases.
Get In, Get Out: Convenience & Retail
Amazon Fresh stores use a similar concept; however, these stores take advantage of Amazon’s proprietary Dash Carts. These are carts equipped with scanning technology that allows items placed in the basket to be added to the shopper’s total while they shop. In addition, touchless self-checkouts from tech manufacturer Mashgin are also making their way into convenience retailers like Circle K across the country. These systems allow customers to place purchases on a scanner, tap their credit cards to pay, and then walk out with their purchases.
All of this innovation points to convenience being the leading trend in retail. Customers are returning to stores after a long few years of online shopping and direct-to-consumer buying, but retail marketing needs to now pivot back toward the customer experience. Shoppers want the immediate gratification of in-person purchases, but they also like the convenience of online shopping. To bridge this gap, retailers need to make the shopping experience the star of the show, enticing shoppers to the store itself, not just the store’s products and prices.
Experiential Marketing as a Solutions
In-store demonstration events, store sampling experiences, and other types of experiential marketing can bridge the divide between online retail and brick-and-mortar shopping. Retailers can also take advantage of automation as a retail marketing solution to make it easier to schedule and manage store demo experiences.
Where the tech comes in is when retailers encourage the creation of user-generated content for social media. Shoppers who take part in field marketing put on by CPG brands can take pictures or videos at a store event on-site, upload this them to social media, and then tag the content to share with others. When this is done consistently over time, retailers stand to generate greater word of mouth marketing opportunities and increase sales per square foot.
