From Scan-and-Go to Revenue Engine: Personalization and Retail Media in the Grocery Store

For many grocers, scan-and-go has been framed as a convenience feature: a way to shorten lines, reduce friction and give shoppers more control over the trip. That value is real. Mobile-assisted checkout can make shopping faster, easier and more transparent, while helping retailers relieve pressure on store operations. But treating the app purely as a checkout utility misses the larger opportunity.

In grocery, the same digital layer that helps a shopper scan items and skip the line can also become the foundation for a far more valuable in-store model—one that connects first-party shopper data, real-time merchandising, digital signage and retail media activation. When grocers rethink the mobile experience as the connective tissue of the store, they can influence basket building in the moment, improve promotional relevance and create new revenue streams with CPG partners.

Publicis Sapient’s work with Walmart Canada illustrates the broader role mobile can play in-store. Fast Lane was designed to remove checkout anxiety by allowing shoppers to scan items as they move through the store, process orders through dedicated lanes and complete purchases with a card on file. But the mobile app was not just a faster way to pay. It also served as a platform for digital in-store experiences, bridging the physical and digital journey with local offers and connected services.

That distinction matters. In a modern grocery environment, the app should function as a digital store companion. It can help shoppers build lists, maintain cart continuity across channels, find products, access local offers and receive relevant promotions while they shop. This transforms the in-store journey from a static experience into a responsive one.

For grocers, that creates a step change in capability. Instead of relying on weekly circulars, broad discounting or endcap visibility alone, retailers can respond to behavior as it happens—based on known preferences, store context, inventory conditions and shopping mission.

Retail media networks have become one of the strongest growth themes in grocery for a reason: grocers sit on rich first-party data, high-frequency purchase behavior and a powerful point of decision. GroceryShop 2022 underscored how central these networks have become, with retailers building meaningful, high-margin advertising businesses across websites, email, mobile and in-store displays. Just as important, the event highlighted that investing in in-store digital displays and omnichannel first-party data adds value and optionality for CPG advertisers.

Scan-and-go and mobile in-store experiences make that opportunity even stronger. When a shopper is signed into the app, scanning products and navigating the store with a digital companion, the grocer gains a far clearer view of intent. The retailer can understand not only who the shopper is, but what they are considering, what aisle they are in, what is already in the basket and what complementary offer may be most relevant at that moment.

This is where personalization becomes materially more valuable than traditional couponing. Rather than pushing generic offers, grocers can activate promotions that reflect immediate context: a meal solution suggestion, a substitute for an unavailable item, a reminder tied to known preferences or a brand-funded offer designed to increase basket size. Relevance improves because the signal is live, not inferred from a past transaction alone.

Connected grocery stores are increasingly built around digital shelves, AI-powered recommendations and dynamic content. Publicis Sapient’s grocery store of the future vision shows how digital screens and audio can inform customers about products while marketers purchase in-store advertising programmatically through self-serve retail media networks. Dynamic pricing and offer updates can also be aligned across digital and physical environments based on inventory, promotions and even individual customer context.

That means digital signage is no longer just a branding surface. It becomes an actionable media channel tied to shopper identity, inventory availability and commercial outcomes. A screen near produce, deli or center-store categories can reinforce a brand message, but the greater opportunity is coordinated activation across the mobile device and the store environment.

For example, a shopper using a scan-and-go app could receive a relevant offer on mobile while also seeing synchronized messaging on nearby screens. That combination can improve recall, increase conversion and make brand spend inside the store more measurable. Instead of buying generalized in-store visibility, CPG partners gain access to more targeted, accountable moments of influence.

The value of connected in-store experiences is not limited to media monetization. They can also improve core retail performance. Publicis Sapient has noted that Amazon Go is more than a checkout innovation; the broader opportunity lies in using store data to improve merchandising, layout, wayfinding, restocking and fulfillment. The same logic applies to mobile-assisted grocery shopping.

As shoppers scan items and engage with digital touchpoints, grocers gain better insight into how customers move through the store, what they consider, where decisions are made and where friction still exists. That intelligence can inform assortment, adjacencies, promotional strategy and floor design. Over time, it creates a more adaptive store—one that is optimized not only for transaction speed, but for discovery and conversion.

There is also clear evidence that scan-and-go can influence spend. Earlier observations from retailers and technology providers showed that some grocers were already using mobile pings and in-trip coupons to encourage shoppers to add more to their carts, with executives reporting larger baskets from users of the experience. The implication for grocers today is much larger: if mobile engagement increases shopper control and convenience, it can also create more opportunities to drive incremental purchases through better-timed, better-targeted merchandising.

One of the biggest advantages of connecting mobile in-store experiences with retail media is the ability to create more measurable collaboration between retailers and brands. Grocery media is most powerful when it is close to the moment of purchase. But CPG partners increasingly want more than impressions. They want evidence that media spend influenced behavior, supported conversion and delivered against a specific objective.

Mobile-assisted shopping helps close that loop. Because the retailer can connect identity, exposure, offer activation and purchase behavior within its own ecosystem, it can provide a more complete view of what worked. That makes it easier to support outcome-based media models, optimize campaigns in flight and align brand investment with retailer priorities such as basket growth, category penetration, inventory movement or waste reduction.

It also creates a more strategic value exchange. The grocer is not simply selling ad space. It is offering access to a connected commerce environment where media, merchandising and shopper experience reinforce one another.

For grocery executives, the takeaway is clear: scan-and-go should not be viewed as a narrow checkout feature. It is an on-ramp to a more connected store model. When combined with unified first-party data, digital signage, dynamic promotions and modern retail media capabilities, mobile in-store experiences can do far more than reduce queue times.

They can make merchandising more responsive. They can make offers more relevant. They can help recover digital-style personalization inside the physical store. And they can open a high-margin revenue stream by giving CPG partners more targeted, measurable ways to reach shoppers at the point of decision.

In a sector defined by thin margins and high shopping frequency, that combination matters. The grocers that win will be the ones that stop thinking about mobile as a utility and start using it as a growth platform—one that connects convenience, personalization and retail media into a single in-store value engine.

Relevant Links

• Stores Make Push in Scan and Go Tech, Hope Shoppers Adopt It
• 12 Things Buyers Should Know About Publicis Sapient’s Connected Grocery and Retail Transformation Work (LIST)
• Stores Make Push in Scan and Go Tech, Hope Shoppers Adopt It
• Beyond Frictionless Checkout: The Connected Grocery Store Operating Model
• Frictionless grocery: how to improve convenience without sacrificing margin
• Grande distribution en Europe : faire du scan-and-go un moteur de croissance, pas seulement un outil de fluidité (Europe)
• Del scan-and-go al crecimiento rentable: la tienda conectada que necesita el supermercadismo en América Latina (LATAM)
• FAQ (FAQ)
• FAQ (FAQ)
• 12 Things Buyers Should Know About Publicis Sapient’s Connected Grocery and Retail Transformation Work (LIST)