From scan-and-go to retail media: turning in-store mobile engagement into a new grocery revenue stream
For many grocers, scan-and-go has been framed as a convenience feature: a faster way to move shoppers through the store, reduce line anxiety and modernize checkout. That value is real. But it is also incomplete. When scan-and-go is connected to loyalty, mobile identity, store operations and in-store digital surfaces, it can become something much more powerful: a growth engine that improves relevance for shoppers while creating new, measurable value for consumer packaged goods partners.
This is the bigger opportunity in connected grocery. A mobile-led store journey does not just remove friction at the end of the trip. It creates a richer picture of intent during the trip. When shoppers are signed into an app, building lists, scanning items, saving carts across channels, accessing local offers and moving through store touchpoints, grocers gain first-party signals that can support personalization, merchandising and retail media monetization in real time.
Convenience is the starting point, not the finish line
Walmart Canada’s Urban Supercentre concept illustrates why this matters. With Fast Lane integrated into the My Walmart app, shoppers can scan items as they shop, use dedicated lanes and complete purchases with a card on file. The experience was designed to address a familiar pain point: waiting in line. It also helped position the mobile app as a platform for broader digital in-store experiences, including local offers and a more connected physical-digital journey.
That shift is important because the app is no longer acting as a simple payment utility. It becomes a digital store companion. Across connected grocery experiences, that companion role can extend to list building, cart continuity across channels, order management, real-time updates, pickup services, local promotions and in-store navigation. In other words, the store journey becomes addressable, measurable and improvable in ways that traditional aisle traffic never was.
Why in-store mobile engagement creates better first-party signals
Retailers have always had transaction data. What they have often lacked is context. Mobile-led journeys fill that gap. When a shopper is signed into the app and actively engaging in store, the retailer can better understand not only what was purchased, but what was considered, when decisions were made and what context shaped the basket.
That context can include:
- Signed-in app behavior: whether a shopper entered from a saved list, responded to a promotion, resumed a basket from another channel or engaged with store services through the app.
- Basket context: what is already in the cart, what categories are being assembled together and where there may be opportunities for complementary offers, substitutions or meal suggestions.
- Store location: where the shopper is in the journey, which local offers are relevant and how merchandising or media messages can reflect the physical environment around them.
- Digital touchpoints: interactions across mobile, web, pickup, click-and-collect and in-store surfaces that together create a more complete view of customer intent.
That makes personalization more useful than generic couponing. Instead of relying only on past transactions, grocers can respond to live in-store behavior. Relevant promotions can appear while the shopper is still deciding. Product recommendations can reflect basket composition. Local offers can be activated in the moment. The result is a more helpful experience for customers and a more efficient use of promotional investment for the retailer.
Better signals improve merchandising as well as marketing
The commercial value of mobile engagement is not limited to offers. Connected grocery models also improve merchandising decisions. Publicis Sapient’s broader work in connected stores points to a model where customer experience and operations share the same data foundation. That includes inventory, pricing, fulfillment, digital shelf capabilities and app-based engagement working together.
In practice, that means richer shopper data can inform more than media targeting. It can help grocers understand demand patterns, improve on-shelf availability, identify out-of-stocks faster and connect promotions more closely to actual store conditions. Digital shelf capabilities can support dynamic updates to prices and information across online and physical channels, while connected data helps ensure shoppers see compelling offers for items that are actually available.
This is where scan-and-go becomes strategically important. It is not just a checkout innovation. It is an entry point into a more connected store model where merchandising, pricing, fulfillment and engagement can be coordinated around real shopper behavior.
From shopper relevance to retail media revenue
Once that data foundation is in place, retail media becomes more powerful and more credible. A U.S. supermarket chain worked with Publicis Sapient to build a new media network around first-party shopper relationships, connecting audience activation, loyalty data and advertising to show a clearer relationship between ad exposure and purchase. That initiative reached $100 million in annual media revenue and is on track to become a billion-dollar business line.
The lesson for grocers is clear: first-party data becomes significantly more valuable when it is connected to the moment of purchase. Mobile-led in-store engagement adds a missing layer to that value equation. It gives retailers more precise opportunities to activate audiences in context and more measurable ways to demonstrate performance to brand partners.
That activation does not have to live in one place. In connected grocery environments, in-store screens, audio, digital signage and mobile experiences can all serve as commercial surfaces. Product recommendations can be optimized through digital screens. Marketers can purchase in-store advertising through self-serve retail media networks. And because those surfaces are linked to loyalty and shopper behavior, the experience can be both more targeted and more measurable.
A stronger business case for connected-store investment
This is the board-level story many grocery leaders are now trying to tell. Investments in connected-store experiences are easier to justify when they do more than reduce friction. If mobile engagement strengthens loyalty, improves personalization, informs merchandising and opens a higher-margin revenue stream through retail media, the business case changes materially.
It also broadens executive ownership. Chief digital officers can see the value in the mobile platform. Chief merchants can use richer signals to shape assortment, promotions and in-store relevance. Retail media leaders can turn those same signals into premium, measurable inventory for CPG partners. And CEOs can view connected-store investment not as isolated innovation, but as a route to growth, differentiation and better operating leverage.
The operating model behind the opportunity
None of this works as showroom technology. Publicis Sapient’s grocery work consistently points to the same principle: convenience creates durable value only when it is operationally disciplined and commercially connected. That requires the right architecture behind the experience, including modern data foundations, flexible point-of-sale capabilities, connected inventory and order visibility, and the ability to link physical and digital touchpoints into one operating model.
Grocers that get this right can create a store journey that feels easier for shoppers and works harder for the business. The shopper experiences faster trips, more control and more relevant offers. The merchant gains better signals. The media network gains better targeting and attribution. And the retailer gains a new source of higher-margin growth built on the strength of its customer relationships.
Scan-and-go, then, should not be viewed as the end state. It is the visible front door to a much larger transformation. When mobile-led convenience is linked to data, loyalty and in-store digital surfaces, the grocery store does more than speed up checkout. It becomes a connected commercial platform—one that can deliver better experiences, smarter decisions and a new revenue stream at the same time.