Oreo's "Dunk in the Dark" Spurs Grocers to Expand Digital Connections to Expand Sales

Supermarkets may yield higher sales if they invest in digital connections with consumers, according to a new report.

Published by Barrington, Ill.-based Brick Meets Click, “Six Degrees of Digital Connection: Growing Grocery Sales in an Omnichannel World” . looks at the business case for investment in digital connections with shoppers.

In the past, newspaper delivery of store circulars could reach 70%, 80% or even 90% of a supermarket’s customer base, but shrinking circulation has diminished the effectiveness of mass media, according to a news release.

“The question many food retailers are asking is this: If I invest in digital connections with shoppers, will that increase shopper engagement and spending in the store?” Bill Bishop, chief architect of Brick Meets Click, said in the release. “We found strong evidence that the answer is yes.”

Steve Bishop, managing director of Brick Meets Click, said in the release that more than 22,000 shoppers from six U.S. retail banners participated in the study.

An analysis of shopper surveys show a strong relationship between the number of digital connections and whether a customer is likely to be a primary shopper (who does a majority of grocery spending with that retailer). Digital connections include e-mail, websites, texting, social networks, mobile and online shopping.

The research found that 61% of shoppers with one digital connection were primary shoppers, while 80% of shoppers with six digital connections were primary shoppers.

What’s more, the study found that consumers with more digital connections generally had more satisfaction shopping.

Shoppers with six digital connections were more than three times as likely to recommend the store to others compared to those with only one digital connection, according to the release.

“While the results don’t establish direct cause and effect yet,” Bishop said in the release, “the relationships are striking enough to suggest that building digital connections can help grow primary shoppers, and that increasing digital connections can drive up satisfaction with shopping the store.”

Among the findings in the study:

• Print supermarket circulars are used regularly by 70% of shoppers, but 37% regularly look at the digital circular;
• 71% of shoppers received e-mails from retailers. The best performing banner reached 92% while the lowest performer reached only 33% of their shoppers;
• 27% of shoppers have “liked” their store’s Facebook page;
• 79% of shoppers found text messages from their food retailer relevant;
• 11% of shoppers regularly buy some grocery products online; and
• online grocery shopping could claim as much as 17% of total grocery spending by 2023.

See more at: http://www.thepacker.com/fruit-vegetable-news/Reports-makes-case-for-digital-connections-with-consumers-227430811.html#sthash.GYwMpTcE.dpuf

2013 Top 50 US Grocery Channel Small Chains and Independents

TOP 50 SMALL CHAINS & INDEPENDENTS

Here is the listing for SN’s Top 50 Small Chains and Independents. Click on each store for detailed information. Sales numbers are listed as estimates, although SN did attempt to obtain accurate figures by contacting every company on the list. Click here for the story. Click here to purchase a Top 50 pdf that includes sales figures, websites, executives, store counts and more.

• 1. Fareway Stores 2013
  2. PAQ 2013
  3. Bodega Latina 2013
  4. Lowe's Market 2013
  5. Northgate Gonzalez Market 2013
  6. Redner's Markets 2013
  7. Rouses Enterprises 2013
  8. Cardenas Markets 2013
  9. King Kullen Grocery Co. 2013
  10. Jerry's Enterprises 2013
  11. Niemann Foods 2013
  12. Vallarta Supermarkets 2013
  13. Dierbergs Markets 2013
  14. Foodland Super Market 2013
  15. Piggly Wiggly Carolina Co. 2013
  16. Festival Foods 2013
  17. Lewis Food Town 2013
  18. Haggen Inc. 2013
  19. Roche Bros. Supermarkets 2013
  20. Cosentino's Food Stores 2013
  21. Harps Food Stores 2013
  22. Glass Gardens 2013
  23. Homeland Stores 2013
  24. Lund Food Holdings 2013
  25. Pyramid Foods 2013
  26. Kings Food Markets 2013
  27. Ball's Food Stores 2013
  28. Martin's Super Markets 2013
  29. C&K Market 2013
  30. Fred W. Albrecht Grocery Co. 2013
  31. Sedano's 2013
  32. Heinen's 2013
  33. Dahl's Foods 2013
  34. Belle Foods 2013
  35. Brown's Super Stores 2013
  36. Harmons 2013
  37. Miner's 2013
  38. Reasor's 2013
  39. All American Quality Foods 2013
  40. Gelson's Markets 2013
  41. Mi Pueblo Food Centers 2013
  42. Perlmart 2013
  43. Stew Leonard's 2013
  44. Ronetco 2013
  45. Pro's Ranch Markets 2013
  46. B&R Stores 2013
  47. Earth Fare 2013
  48. Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage 2013
  49. Tawa Supermarket 2013
  50. Town & Country Grocers 2013

Read More: http://supermarketnews.com/2013-top-50-small-chains-and-independents#ixzz2g6Nj453v

Challenges Emerge as Grocery Industry Restructures

NEW YORK — The same forces inspiring a new wave of supermarket consolidation are likely to spark a concurrent groundswell of retail bankruptcies and restructurings.

The latter phenomenon will present opportunities and challenges to lenders, lawyers, strategic investors and others who do business with distressed companies, according to speakers at a panel discussion here Thursday. And understanding the unique challenges facing distressed supermarkets is key to successful restructuring, they said.

“For traditional supermarkets … the market is competitive, it’s saturated, and its been tough for a number of years,” said panelist Richard Pedone, a partner with the law firm Nixon Peabody. “And it’s bringing us to a flashpoint where you’re going to see a lot more distress.

“It’s a mature industry where people are killing each other. And where that happens, there’s bound to be opportunity,” he added.

Much of the stress on traditional supermarkets has come as a result of non-traditional competitors including clubs, mass merchants and specialty stores that have absorbed nearly all of the sales growth in the industry since 2008, said another panelist, Craig Boucher, a director at Deloitte’s corporate restructuring group. Boucher briefly served as Winn-Dixie’s chief financial officer while that chain went through a Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

According to Boucher, pressure from non-traditional competitors is forcing some smaller supermarket retailers to seek additional strength and buying power through strategic mergers. Although there has been more than $22 billion in supermarket mergers in 2013 — the hottest pace of consolidation since 1999 — there is still more capacity not likely to be part of a merger, he said.

“There are 38,000 grocers in the U.S. — not stores — grocers,” he said. This group accounts for more than 58% of the supermarket industry with no single player accounting from more than 1.2% of the total share.
Restructuring a grocery chain presents challenges that tend not to exist when dealing with non-supermarket retailers, particularly on the legal front, said Lee Harrington, a partner in Nixon Peabody’s financial restructuring and bankruptcy practice. These challenges include so-called PACA claims arising under the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act, which creates a trust for the benefit of suppliers to collect payment on perishable items.

Harrington, who worked on A&P’s bankruptcy, said that case helped to establish a mechanism to deal with such claims, which totaled $3.4 million.

Read More: http://supermarketnews.com/retail-amp-financial/industry-faces-restructuring-challenges-panel#ixzz2f4fmgSYn

Written by Jon Springer on Spet. 13th, 2013