TECHNOLOGY
Retail Innovation
Food Retailing’s Digital Future Is Filled With Hybrid Shoppers AN E VEN GRE ATER TR ANSFORMATION AWAITS, FOLLOWING A PANDEMIC-DRIVEN E-COMMERCE SURGE. By Mike Troy he great unsettled question facing food retailers amid a lingering pandemic is, what lies beyond? The next normal has proved difficult to assess, partly because the pandemic has yet to fully release its grip, while at the same time fast-moving technology is affecting every aspect of food retailing. So what’s a grocer to do? How does one serve today’s shoppers who are still grappling with pandemic concerns, while positioning a business for future growth on the shifting sands of uncertainty? That’s Rob Weisberg’s job. As SVP of e-commerce, technology and services at Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Inmar Intelligence, Weisberg helps retailers and CPG companies look around the corner to understand what lies beyond, especially as it relates to the coming wave of technological transformation. Weisberg and his team at Inmar see several macro-trends coming out of the pandemic, some well understood and others less so. For example, he talks about the concept of hybrid shoppers, individualization and wellness. Transformation in each area is driven by the adoption and application of technology that has lagged compared with other industries.
“e-commerce is a transferable skill, and at its core, Inmar is a data company because of the deep relationships we have with grocers that give us visibility into shopper behavior.” —Rob Weisberg, SVP of E-Commerce, Technology and Services, Inmar Intelligence
“The retail grocery space has been in the dark ages when it comes to technology adoption,” Weisberg asserts. “For some, a point-of-sale system was the major tech adoption of the past 25 years.” That’s a harsh assessment, and obviously, retailers vary widely in their levels of sophistication, but Weisberg contends, “The retail grocery space is ripe for innovation right now.” A key reason for this is that the pandemic lit a fire of change under everyone involved in retail grocery. Organizations that were earlier adopters of technology fared better, but the pandemic caught some grocers flat-footed, prompting them to say, as Weisberg notes, “My customers are afraid to come into the store. What do I do?”
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Been There, Done That
The world of grocery is one of the last major industries to feel the same type of disruptive effects of technology that have transformed other sectors. That’s what drew Weisberg to Inmar roughly a year ago. “I like going into industries that have been slower to technology adoption, to help revolutionize those industries,” he says. A glance at Weisberg’s background reveals what he means. He was previously CEO of Boston-based Invaluable, an online marketplace for fine art, antiques and collectibles. Prior to that, he was chief marketing officer at Boston-based Zipcar, the car-sharing company acquired by Avis-Budget Group. And before that, he was VP of multimedia and marketing at Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Domino’s Pizza. Weisberg may not be a veteran grocer, but that also means he isn’t encumbered by legacy points of view that can hinder innovation. Further, as Weisberg observes, “e-commerce is a transferable skill, and at its core, Inmar is a data company because of the deep relationships we have with grocers that give us visibility into shopper behavior.” It’s that visibility, as well as the abundance of data it yields, that has Weisberg excited about being part of the next wave of transformation in grocery. He sees similarities to other sectors where he was part of transformative
