Jason Goldberg is a fourth-generation retailer who has had a front-row seat to the digital disruption of commerce. He joined the Publicis team over eight years ago and currently serves as the Chief Commerce Strategy Officer. Jason has partnered with more than 100 clients on the Internet Retailer 500 and is based in the Greater Chicago Area.
Historically, the grocery industry in North America and Western Europe experienced minimal digital disruption. However, the shifting environment has led to a drastic change: ecommerce sales have increased from just 2-3% of all sales to 12-15%. These changes have significant repercussions for the industry. First, digital grocery is not as profitable as brick-and-mortar. When ecommerce was a small portion of sales, little thought was given to improving it. Now, as it eats into profits, grocers must invest in digital. We have seen investments in automation, micro-fulfillment, product picking efficiency, and delivery alternatives such as curbside pickup and geocoding.
Another challenge is the loss of opportunities for serendipitous discovery. Online shoppers often buy from tailored lists curated through micro-moments, reducing the likelihood of unplanned purchases. Additionally, due to COVID, many grocery chains that previously relied on in-store samples to highlight new products can no longer do so. These chains are now working to enhance the digital discovery experience, using consumer data and AI to offer samples and pre-packaged sample-size items to increase the likelihood of serendipitous discovery.
Consumers who still visit stores expect all the digital amenities they have become accustomed to online, such as supply chain information, rich product attributes, list management, and convenient payment and checkout options.
The scale of this transformation is significant. For comparison, twenty years ago, few would have believed that movies and books would be downloaded directly to devices, yet today that is the norm. Grocery stores must invest in digital to stay relevant as the industry evolves—what used to take ten years to change is now happening in ten minutes.
We are also seeing the in-person experience change as a result of digital disruption.
Grocers used to outsource digital to a few third-party vendors, with only a small percentage of sales going through the channel. This was a good strategy to test and learn about digital, but now that digital represents a much larger portion of revenue and is the front door to the shopping experience, most retailers are bringing it in-house and building their own expertise.
To succeed in digital grocery, retailers must be proficient at merchandising all products and managing the digital shelf. Previously, grocery stores did not have ecommerce sites or online product inventory. Unlike other retail categories, where there might be a single product detail page per item, every grocery store within the same chain may have different inventory and product assortments—essentially maintaining thousands of sites. Additionally, inventory is more dynamic and perishable, leading to higher churn compared to traditional retail ecommerce.
Bringing these capabilities in-house requires more than just an ecommerce platform. For example, increasing impulse purchases can be achieved with Einstein recommendations based on Sales Cloud and DMP, which use past behaviors to determine which products to expose to customers and which free samples to include in their orders. Marketing Cloud can be used to encourage customers to reorder and to communicate with them between visits. This creates a need for the entire Salesforce stack to work together, not just a single product.
We currently manage marketing communications for many large and multinational brands in the grocery and retail space. As these brands transition to digital, it is essential to ensure that each touchpoint delivers value to the customer.
By leveraging technologies across their marketing tech stack, including Salesforce Audience Studio, brands can find unique opportunities to connect with their customers.
We also need to ensure that we are advertising relevant offerings to support business profitability. At the beginning of the year, buy-online-pickup-in-store was a value differentiator, but now it is expected and does not need to be actively marketed. Instead, we use that space to create more value for shoppers and profit for the company through other offerings.
For example, consider the challenge of promoting seasonal products like Pumpkin Oreos. If a customer has Fudge Oreos on their list, they might see Pumpkin Oreos in-store and decide to try them. That experience is lost online. We help clients find alternative channels to promote new and seasonal products to increase awareness and purchases.
One successful approach has been jointly pitching with Salesforce. This is something we could do more often, as it has proven to be incredibly effective. For the majority of our Publicis Sapient clients, we are addressing business problems that Salesforce can help solve. By creating a joint plan and pitching together, we can contribute to the overall success of the client’s business.
The focus on quality of life for Salesforce employees, partners, and customers is very apparent. It is not about short-term ROI or a particular deal, but about the health and happiness of long-term relationships. The emphasis on long-term success is evident in how employees engage with the larger ecosystem.
Leveraging technologies across their marketing tech stack, including Salesforce Audience Studio, brands are able to find unique opportunities to connect with their customers.