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It’s also what United Natural Foods, Inc., a publicly traded wholesale distributor for food and grocery items, has invested in, launching its own retail media network this spring called the UNFI Media Network. It developed the platform with Swiftly, a technology company that powers retail media networks.

Who owns your data?

Third-party data is information about consumers that a retailer or advertiser acquires through an entirely separate source. On the internet, that’s often done through third-party cookies. Third-party cookies are code used on websites that can live on in web browsers across multiple site visits. They essentially track user activity and inform targeted advertisements delivered to those users. Google had planned to phase out third-party cookies, but it recently announced it will not do so.

The intuitive alternative to third-party data is first-party data. First-party data is what retailers and advertisers acquire directly and voluntarily from consumers. It can include an email address or phone number that a consumer uses to sign up for a loyalty program, or the information that a consumer uses to complete a checkout on an ecommerce order. That’s the kind of data that powers retail media networks and advertising.

Both kinds of data allow retailers and advertisers to personalize digital ads based on consumers’ shopping behaviors.

“One of the things that we thought was so important about Swiftly versus other retail media platforms out there is that the retailer retains 100% control of the information and data of that shopper, of that loyalty subscriber,” Louis Martin, UNFI president of wholesale, told Digital Commerce 360. “They don’t have to give that away.”

What is an example of retail media advertising?

Sean Turner, cofounder and chief technology officer at Swiftly, showed Digital Commerce 360 examples of what retail media advertising can look like. Sharing his screen on a web-based call, Turner showed three kinds of personalized ads the UNFI Media Network can display using Swiftly technology.

1. Personalized pricing promotions

In the example above, the consumer has shopped at a Hen House location. The prices in the promotion are specific to the Hen House location where that consumer typically shops. Swiftly operates in the first-party cookie list identity space, Turner said.

“So we’re not cookie-ing users to try to track and target users,” Turner told Digital Commerce 360. “I’m actually getting explicit opt-in identities with a first-party login with the user’s email address, phone number into these retailer apps. And when we go and we target users, we’re actually able to target them using a data clean room, target these same shoppers off-platform in a privacy-compliant and cookie-less way.”

A data clean room “leverages the hash of your email address, so you’re not sharing any of the raw data, and it couldn’t be used to reverse-engineer-your email address,” he explained. It matches two people “without ever having to exchange any personally identifiable information,” he added.

He compared the process to a digital version of circular print ads. A local grocery store can send printed coupons and pricing — often on newsprint paper — to consumers and potential consumers near it. But because many shoppers are more inclined to check prices on their phones and computers than go through traditionally mailed circulars, companies like UNFI and Swiftly use retail media advertising capabilities to reach potential customers.

“If I just show you an ad and you’re out on the internet and it just says, well, hey, apples are $0.98 a pound, I don’t know where to go,” Turner said. “I don’t know where to buy it. I’m gonna probably just ignore that ad ’cause it’s not gonna register with me. But if it’s the retailer that you go to every week that’s branded that ad and it’s like, hey, these are the deals at that retailer, well, guess what? We’re seeing very, very high average return on ad spend for these ads.”

2. Product-based promotions

Another Swiftly-powered retail media ad highlights a specific product, as opposed to a pricing promotion.

Turner also showed Digital Commerce 360 a different use case for personalized retail media advertising. In the image above, the retail media ad shows Alexia-brand onion rings. Clicking on the ad takes users to a recipe page featuring the product.

Clicking through the Alexia onion ring ad takes online shoppers to a page that promotes a recipe featuring the product, as well as what other ingredients a shopper should purchase to make the recipe as shown.

“I’ve got all the products featured right below that, so it makes it super easy for me to add these to my shopping list or to add it to an ecommerce cart and actually go and buy the product,” Turned said. “You’ve got a pretty good, complete story there.”

3. In-app mobile advertising

Swiftly powers the retail media technology for St. Louis-based grocery retailer Dierbergs’ mobile app. Upon opening the app, a user might see an ad to make s’mores.

An ad on the Swiftly-powered Dierbergs mobile app calls users to make s’mores.

When a user clicks the ad, she is taken to a list of products that an advertiser or advertisers promote to complete the recipe in their call to action. In this case, those would be Hershey’s, Kraft and Mondelez.

The Dierbergs app shows which products to buy to make s’mores, based on the companies advertising.

The app then displays the products with pricing based on the location where the user shops. Additionally, it shows which aisles a user can go to in the store to find the products. Both of those details update automatically, as the retailer’s app is linked to its point-of-sale system.

The product detail page shows an image, pricing and the duration of the promotion. It also shows where to find the product in the user’s preferred store location.

The user can add the product to an ecommerce cart or to a list for physical shopping by clicking the plus symbol in green on the product detail page.

Dierbergs app users can add products to their shopping lists or digital carts.

The app sorts the products that consumers add to their lists to display by aisle, making in-store shopping more efficient.

Impact on regional and independents retailers

Retail media advertising is a critical capability for smaller retailers, Martin and Turner both told Digital Commerce 360. Any retailer working with UNFI or brand that sells to those retailers can participate in the UNFI Media Network, Martin said.

That includes some of the largest consumer packaged goods companies (CPGs), he said. Those CPGs typically come in with a checklist of expectations. That’s because they have the resources to understand what goes into advertising at that scale, he added.

“The flip side is we also have a universe of suppliers who don’t have that infrastructure,” Martin said. “They are small, natural organic suppliers. In many cases, they may be all the way down to still doing stuff in the garage of their home to maybe having one or two production facilities and able to supply to just a few.

“Well, they’re not the ones that can go to Walmart and get on the media platform because one, if Walmart turns it on, they’re not going to have the scale to keep up with it. But two, they don’t have the administrative infrastructure to engage. And so we’ve tried to make that very easy for that type of supplier by you can just simply go on our website and with a few clicks, sign up, put your brand on it.”

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Ongoing research from Digital Commerce 360 supplemented by additional industry research shows that all the multiple channels buyers use to purchase goods and services from sellers now either begin and end entirely online or include at least one digital touchpoint.

B2B Omnichannel Report highlights digital touchpoints

B2B buyers want an easy and helpful purchasing experience. And they want one that’s consistent across all the channels they want to use.

B2B distributor Groupe Touchette shows how a successful omnichannel selling strategy boosts customer loyalty and market share while cutting costs.

Today, B2B buyers use about a dozen digitally focused sales channels to engage with sellers. That’s up from 7.5 channels five years ago and just five channels eight years ago, McKinsey says.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, buyers did business through email, phone, trips to the store, branch, or distribution center, and online at a seller’s ecommerce site or login portal.

Now, buyers may use multiples channels to transact business with a B2B seller. And more of these transactions begin and end online.

Today, 53% of companies that took part in a 2023 B2B buyers survey from Digital Commerce 360 and Forrester Research make an online purchase daily or multiple times over a business day.

Getting a better online user experience from sellers that makes their jobs easier and more efficient to perform is a top-of-mind topic with buyers today. And so far, buyers are content with the digital customer experience sellers are dishing up.

Going forward, if other manufacturers and distributors want to replicate the same digitally driven omni-selling sales success as Groupe Touchette, they will need to better learn when, where, how, and why their customers do business with them across multiple channels.

This report provides data, analysis and case studies that will help manufacturers and distributors do just that.

More on the 2024 B2B Omnichannel Buyer and Seller Report is available now.

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Now that the dust has settled, we can say that neither proved to be true.

As part of the recently released Top 1000/Top 500 Report from Digital Commerce 360, we examined the ecommerce growth from 2019 through 2023 for the 1,000 largest North America-based retailers and consumer brand manufacturers by global online sales. And there were quite a few surprises.

How did the pandemic affect sales growth for the Top 1000 online retailers?

It is true that the Top 1000’s online sales grew rapidly during the pandemic. In fact, their global ecommerce revenue exceeded $1 trillion in 2023 for the first time, growing 6.9% over 2022.

And for 2019-2023, online sales for the Top 1000 increased at a robust compound annual growth rate of 17.2%, nearly doubling during that period. But online retailing was growing at an even faster rate before COVID hit. The Top 1000 posted an 18.6% compound annual growth rate from 2016-2019, well above the pandemic-era CAGR.

How fast did Amazon grow during the pandemic?

And while Amazon (No. 1 in the Top 1000) did fine during the pandemic, posting a 17.8% CAGR during the five-year period, store-based retailers collectively did even better, growing at a 19.2% annual rate.

As a result, their share of Top 1000 sales increased to 34.0% in 2023 from 31.8%. Amazon’s share also grew, but more modestly, to 38.7% in 2023 from 38.0% in 2019.

Amazon accounted for 7.4% of global online retail sales in 2023. But that global number includes the $2.17 trillion in e-retail sales in China, where Amazon effectively no longer competes. Taking out China, Amazon accounts for 12.2% of online retail sales in the rest of the world. That more accurately reflects its dominance everywhere but China.

2024 Top 1000 Report

Analysis of North America’s leading 1,000 online retailers. Includes over 175 charts, rankings by annual web sales, benchmarking data, and growth analyses by category and merchant type.

View Details

Growth in online grocery sales

A big reason for the online growth of physical store retailers is the surge in online grocery shopping during the pandemic.

The Food/Beverage category posted the highest compound annual growth rate from 2019-2023 at 26.0%. That mainly benefited traditional supermarkets like Kroger (No. 6 in the Top 1000), which increased its online share of total sales to 10.5% in 2023 from 5.3% in 2019, and Walmart (No.2), which sells the most groceries of any U.S. retailer and increased its ecommerce penetration to 15.4% in 2023 from 7.6% in 2019.

Here are some of the other data highlights from the Digital Commerce 360 Top 1000/Top 500 report:

• Conversion rate for Top 1000 retailers ticked down to just over 2.6% in 2023 from nearly 2.8% in 2022. But that still was ahead of the 2.2% rate in 2019.
• Shoppers 55 and older accounted for only 18.4% of visits to Top 1000 sites in 2023, down from 21.8% in 2022. That suggests that older consumers were especially likely to return to shopping in physical stores as the pandemic eased in 2023.
• Larger retail chains are more likely than smaller ones to offer a mobile app, and store operators with apps are more likely to offer omnichannel services: 33.0% of store-based retailers with a mobile app offered curbside pickup in 2023 versus 13.5% of those without an app, and 87.0% offered in-store pickup of online orders compared to 50.4% of those without an app.
• The Top 1000 accounted for 19.2% of global retail ecommerce sales in 2023, unchanged from a year earlier. Amazon alone accounted for 7.4% of global e-retail in 2023, up from 7.2% in 2022.

What else is in this year’s Top 1000 report?

The Top 1000/Top 500 Report includes all of the following:

• Top 1000 growth by merchant type and merchandise category, comparing 2023 to 2022 and analyzing the five-year period from 2019 to 2023.
• Website traffic trends, broken down by merchant type, merchandise category, gender and age.
• Average order value and conversion rate by merchant type and merchandise category.
• An analysis of winners and losers within the 2024 rankings of the Top 500, North America’s leading retailers by global online sales.
• Mobile traffic and sales for Top 1000 ecommerce sites.
• International shipping methods, payment types and shopping features offered by Top 1000 sites.
• Which online marketplaces Top 1000 retailers sell on, broken out by merchant type and merchandise category.
• An analysis of omnichannel retail services offered, including in-store pickup of online orders, curbside pickup and showing store inventory on retail chain websites.
• How digitally native brands are faring online.

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Throughout his career, Dennis has worked with some of retail’s biggest names, tackling strategy changes and placing bets in the face of disruption — both at physical stores and online. In this second part of the discussion, he shared his perspective on how he thinks about risk, as well as advice on pitching big leaps in front of board rooms and other stakeholders.

Dennis explained what he has seen and offered his pick for the boldest decision made by a modern retailer.

Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Click here to read the first part of our interview with Steve Dennis.

How to pitch a bold decision in retail

Digital Commerce 360: You open up the book with a compelling story about walking out of a board meeting at Sears. Deciding to advocate for a leap along the lines of your definition is already a big decision. Taking on the associated risk is another one. In your experience, what have you learned is necessary to pitch this type of vision before stakeholders, whether it’s boards, executives, or shareholders? 

“Leaders Leap” by Steve Dennis | Image credit: Steve Dennis/Wonderwell, design by Adrian Morgan

Steve Dennis: In some ways, there’s sort of the metaphorical leap, which is about taking risk, right? There’s both the strategic leap, and then there’s the leaps we take as leaders in our actions day to day, week to week, month to month, year to year. I don’t want to give the sense that, generally speaking, a leap should be automatically this incredibly risky thing. I do think there’s a boldness of action that’s important in general. But, I don’t wanna give the sense that it’s about taking moon shots or this sort of thing.

The best thing is to not let yourself get into a position where you have to leap in the first place, right? That’s the ideal thing. And I think that’s much more a series of smaller risks taken over time. It’s the cumulative impact of that as opposed to a real strategic leap. But I think if you get to the point where there is more overall boldness of action that’s required, the main thing — in terms of getting support for it — is to help people understand the risk of not doing it. And that’s, I think, the hardest thing of all.

It’s a little bit what I try to get at with the “Safe is Risky” chapter. It’s very clear with the benefit of hindsight that many companies’ failures to act more boldly and move faster earlier on is what’s caused them to have multiple years of struggle.

So just going back to the Macy’s example, there are any number of significant things Macy’s could have done over the last 20 years that would have given them at least the promise of being a much more valuable company, of having not lost so much market share to all the different players they did. Now, they’re in a position where they don’t have the capital structure to invest very aggressively. They don’t have the confidence of Wall Street to support being much more aggressive. And for them to be a really successful company now, they’ve got to win back so much market share that the reason why I’m so negative on their ability to be able to do that is because it’s such a herculean task.

It would not have been all that hard for them to have gotten off the mall with other formats. And they’re doing so many things so late. Along the way, when it’s not a crisis moment, is the time to do it. And I think the best way is to try to quantify the risk. And then in terms of actions, it’s to place smaller bets. It’s to have tested a concept that would have fought with TJ Maxx and Ross. 

Even their Blue Mercury – they lost so much market share in cosmetics to Ulta and Sephora. Blue Mercury is like one-fiftieth the size of them in the U.S. That’s nice. But you know, it’s not a real battle. It’s so incremental that it’s almost kind of laughable, but at the place they are now, they don’t have a choice. They’re not gonna acquire TJ Maxx, right? So the options now are very limited.

What are examples of the boldest decisions in retail?

DC360: You bring up crisis moments. In your mind, what have been — whether proven, unproven, successful, unsuccessful — the boldest decisions you’ve seen the past four or five years in retail? 

SD: I’ll give you one that’s more of an overall business model one. And then a couple that are subsections of bold things. By far, the boldest retail one that I’ve been able to think of is what’s happened with RH — with Restoration Hardware. Actually, just as a quick aside, which shows that I do not always have the greatest capacity for discernment, I saw [Restoration Hardware CEO] Gary Friedman present at a conference where I was also a presenter about eight or nine years ago. 

He was presenting the gallery concept before one had been opened. And I remember thinking he was crazy, like it was just such a bold step — and also one where you really couldn’t test it very well. I mean the test was to go build one of these things, which was not a cheap date. 

They took the concept. They took a store that was basically a weird mix of things — sort of tchotchke kind of items and a little bit of home fashion — and then they made this leap to this palace of high-end home furnishing. And I don’t know all the work that went into doing that other than it was pretty clear that their current format was not a winning format, and they had gone to bankruptcy already.

That was a business that was not in great shape, but that was a very big step. But I know it was rooted in understanding the market, that there was really nobody doing something on a scale. But they had certain equity and also Gary and a couple of people that were on his team knew that business well enough. So it wasn’t quite a moon shot, but it was a big, big step. And then to continue rolling it out — and they’re rolling it out, even in the face of the home market being quite soft, as you know. 

The other sort of set of things I would say — and I like picking a company that is a huge company — is what Walmart and Target have done in investing in their stores. Because both Walmart and Target saw 5-6 years ago now, I guess, at a time when this whole retail apocalypse narrative was pretty strong. But also in particular, this idea that Amazon was just unstoppable. And if you were a merchant like a Walmart or Target selling a lot of different stuff at comparatively low price points that you were going to get Amazon’d. And it isn’t as if Walmart and Target didn’t invest in their digital and ecommerce capabilities. They did. But to invest back into stores and see the role that stores can play, particularly when the narrative was pretty much 180 degrees in the opposite direction, it was pretty bold.

It’s also an example of where they didn’t just go nuts and do everything all at once. They did place some pretty big bets. Of course, they can because they’re big companies and they’ve got the cash positions and all that kind of stuff to invest. And full disclosure, Walmart’s been a client of mine, but they were doing the work. They understood what the economics were; they understood what consumers wanted; they push the edge a little bit because customers aren’t always the best at figuring out what they want till they see it.

When to advocate for a bold decision

DC360: What’s your advice to a person trying to understand when a bold idea is worth advocating for and pursuing? Is it fundamentally the risk of total disruption and irrelevance? What’s an internal test you would put that up against when you see the opportunity for a bold strategy or leap? 

Steve Dennis, author of the book “Leaders Leap” | Image credit: Steve Dennis

SD: Number one, it kind of depends where the idea is. The right term is kind of maturity of the idea. For example, two years ago, let’s say if you were in certain technology spaces, you would have some awareness about generative AI, right? And you may not necessarily know how things are going to play out. We still don’t know how things are gonna play out.  

But even before ChatGPT came out. Whatever it is now — 21 months ago or something. There are people that were aware that some of this stuff is going on. So you might then want to say, let’s figure out a way to have kind of a listening post or some very early exploratory scouting. And the business case for that would be: This could be very, very significant. Could develop very, very quickly. We need to get more knowledgeable about what is going on and see some of the possibilities, so we can then place the next series of bets on it. But that would be a case for something that’s really almost like R&D-ish. 

Sears was very early on in click and collect or buy online, pick up in store. Neiman Marcus was quite early on that as well. And the business case was — for piloting it — that it was something customers wanted. It was something that could give us a competitive edge. And you could scope out a proof of concept and then ultimately a pilot that was manageable. But you had an idea that the size of the prize was big enough for it to be scaled to this level. 

Amid all of these things, you’re thinking about the risk. You’re thinking about the resource. I always think about it as a series of options on this. If you spend this much money, you’re creating the option to do the next thing. So you have to be able to balance out, “What if I’m right? What if I’m wrong? What option value does it create for me?” It’s all in the context of — generally speaking — solving a customer problem or activating an opportunity. So you have to be able to scope it a little bit. 

One thing, when I was at Neiman Marcus, which is such an old example, but social media was fairly new when I was first there — this is when MySpace was the thing and Second Life was gonna be a big thing. But in terms of a retail position, MySpace was a little bit about advertising and whether or not we should stand up any kind of commerce capabilities on the site. Second Life was more about having a store in what was the primitive metaverse, right? But it was very, very early there. It was getting a lot of buzz. And I remember pitching a couple of different proof of concept sort of ideas to our CEO. 

We were asking for like $20,000 or something — we were a $4 billion company. It was trivial, but he wanted [to] know what’s the business case? And I remember saying, “There is no business case I like. This could be big. This is a probe. We will be smarter about this opportunity in four months’ time. And then we’ll see where we are.” But it’s like an insurance policy or something in a way, because you don’t want to fall behind. 

As it turned out with Second Life, we never did anything, and it was good we never did anything. MySpace, we fiddled around with it, but again, that never turned out to be anything. But as Facebook started to emerge, we had a greater sense of what was going on.  

There’s a lot of parameters in terms of the decision that goes that goes into it. And if you’re pitching an idea, you have to be able to give — in the earlier stage — more color commentary. In the later stage, you’ve got to bring more analysis to it.

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Comparable sales declined 5.7% in the same period. Meanwhile, ecommerce sales had back-to-back quarters of positive growth, according to CEO Steve Lawrence. Academy Sports also announced an exclusive partnership with DoorDash that offers its consumers same-day delivery from its stores.

The retailer has 285 stores in 19 states. It opened two new stores during its fiscal Q1. Looking ahead, Academy Sports plans to open another 12 to 14 stores in the second half of the year.

Lawrence said in a statement that the retailer’s Q1 results reflect its consumers remaining “under pressure in the current economic environment.”

In an earnings call with investors, Lawrence explained that part of Academy Sports’ core strategy is to grow its ecommerce sales to reach 15% penetration over the next five years. To achieve that target, he said the retailer’s goals are “to streamline and elevate the omnichannel shopping experience, offer expanded assortments online, and improve our fulfillment speed.”

Academy Sports + Outdoors ranks No. 144 in the Top 1000. The database is Digital Commerce 360’s ranking of North America’s top online retailers by their annual web sales.

Academy Sports + Outdoors ecommerce sales in Q1

In its fiscal Q1, Academy Sports sales totaled $1.36 billion. That’s down from $1.38 billion in the year-ago quarter.

Academy Sports ecommerce sales grew 8% year over year. Additionally, Academy Sports ecommerce sales comprised 9% of total sales in Q1 2024. That compares to 8.2% in the year-ago period. Buy online, pick up in store (BOPIS) and ship-from-store sales represented more than 80% of Academy Sports ecommerce sales.

Lawrence said that “highlights the true omnichannel approach that we’ve taken to growing this business.”

He added that there are three primary sales drivers regarding the retailer’s customers:

1. Newness
2. Value
3. Driving traffic during key periods

Academy Sports also seeks to push its My Academy rewards program by expanding buying power for customers. That includes a welcome offer of 10% off a customer’s next purchase of up to $200. It also includes free shipping on purchases of more than $25. That compares with a $50 minimum for free shipping for non-rewards members. In addition to expanding buying power, Lawrence said those in the program will have faster checkout both online and on its app, as well as “insider access to personalized offers, deals and products, and a birthday reward.”

Academy Sports partnership with DoorDash

As of June 10, consumers can shop from Academy Sports via the DoorDash app. Consumers can order items for same-day delivery from all Academy Sports locations. Those locations are also available on DashPass, DoorDash’s membership program that offers members a $0 delivery fee and reduced service fee on eligible orders.

Chad Fox, executive vice president and chief customer officer, said in a statement that Academy Sports is excited to give its customers “another convenient way to get the products they need quickly.”

“Academy Sports + Outdoors is continually looking for ways to help our customers get to the fun faster, and we believe this partnership with DoorDash will provide them with a new option to get the gear they need,” Fox said in the statement.

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The post B2B buyers increasingly seek digital-first omnichannel options appeared first on Digital Commerce 360.

Joshua Silverman

Many retailers have historically fashioned their product data ingestion processes into “walled gardens,” narrowly architected systems that required their suppliers to pay for access to portals to submit product information.

These walled gardens make the collection of data extremely challenging. Brands would have to go through one system to submit GDSN (Global Data Synchronization Network) data, another for ecommerce setup, and another just for submitting images. This web of single-purpose systems created manual work for brands that delayed product launches, led to error-prone data that resulted in fees, and ultimately worsened the quality of product detail pages and jeopardized the shopper experience.

While some retailers still have these traditional processes in place today, many more have begun to rethink how to offer their suppliers a better experience. This new trend has been driven by several factors:

1. Recognition that high-quality product information drives conversion. The  latest consumer research reports found that 78% of consumers will abandon a product purchase when the product information is incomplete. Additionally, the 2023 Forrester Wave^TM for Product Information Management states: “The macro trend shaping product information’s criticality is that consumers find online shopping more convenient than offline shopping in stores…Product information quality [is] the North Star to drive conversions. Bad content on product pages is a barrier to sales.
2. The rising importance of retail media as a revenue source. According to new research from Stratably and the Digital Shelf Institute, brands reinvest, on average, 7.2% of their digital sales into retail media spend with their retailer partners — and that figure is steadily climbing. But 67% of brand leaders say that content quality is a meaningful part of this investment equation, meaning that brand leaders will reconsider additional investments until the data on the product detail pages their ads connect to are best-in-class. Inaccurate or incomplete product data means lower return on ad spend (ROAS) for the brands. For any retailer looking to derive revenue and margin from their first-party data, the quality of the product detail page (PDP) is critical.
3. The introduction of AI is giving retailers the ability to scale content quality checks in a way that simply wasn’t possible before. Part of the walled-garden approach was an attempt to force data consistency through a narrow submission channel. AI allows for data checks at scale, without the need for a limiting submission mechanism.

A key way retailers have begun to tangibly invest in better collaboration with their suppliers is through “omniconnectors,” new application programming interfaces (APIs) that are purpose-built to support data ingestion for all content for both the digital shelf and brick and mortar.

These omniconnectors create a single, streamlined process for brands to submit information and reflect the omnichannel shopping habits of today’s consumer (eg., through BOPIS, an industry that is forecast to grow at a double-digit. compound annual growth rate of 19.3% until 2027, globally). The technology of APIs, as opposed to submission portals, also offers the ability for AI-propelled quality checks and two-way feedback between the retailer and their suppliers, driving collaboration at scale.

Leading retailers are investing in this technology now. Walmart recently launched its new Omnispec API, a new product information submission process for suppliers that combines all of the data requirements for both online and brick-and-mortar item setup. Other retailers like Kroger and Albertsons have also “opened up” their existing walled gardens, allowing their suppliers choice when it comes to which syndication provider they prefer to use when they submit their product information. This means that brands no longer need to pay multiple providers to get content to the same retailer. The Home Depot is another retailer now rethinking how it can create more agile ways for its thousands of suppliers to submit product content updates.

Over the next couple of years, it will become possible for any retailer to efficiently offer similar capabilities at a reasonable cost, transforming the industry.

What should brands and retailers do now to prepare for an open, collaborative, omnichannel, future?

Retailer Executives:

1. Think strategically about where supplier collaboration sits in your roadmap of priorities, given its impact on consumer experience, retail media ROAS, and PDP conversion rates.
2. Complete an analysis of all the various disparate methods across teams for product ingestion from suppliers today and how they might be streamlined.
3. Start conversations with leading suppliers and their chosen product data management and syndication technology providers to begin designing a roadmap towards your own omniconnector capabilities.

Supplier Executives:

1. Consider how and where your product content is stored and managed today. Are you still using spreadsheets, or do you have a product experience management solution in place? How ready are you to scale processes to automate delivery of your content to all endpoints?
2. Think about which teams will need access to product content and whether it’s easy for them to access. How will you power your product enterprise and break down silos, allowing your legal, support, ecommerce and retailer media teams to access the same set of optimized, complete and accurate product content?
3. Talk to your retailers about any pain points you experience in the content submission process today and the consequences (e.g., delayed product launches or stale information on PDPs). Your influence could help to get improvements on the roadmap.

A focus on open and easy collaboration between retailers and their brands drives efficiency and revenue, impacting both top- and bottom-line growth by creating product experiences that drive conversion.

About the author

Josh Silverman, is senior vice president of retail and distribution at Salsify Inc., a provider of product information management and related technology applications.

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The post Why omnichannel retailers are letting suppliers into their ‘walled gardens’ appeared first on Digital Commerce 360.

Walmart launched InHome in 2019, piloting the program in Pittsburgh and Vero Beach, Florida, before expanding to other markets. The program uses specially trained delivery personnel who use one-time access codes via smart locks and record the entire delivery via a body camera.

Why Walmart is expanding InHome delivery

Walmart is touting the expansion as a boon for customer convenience.

“We understand that customers are busy and want to make sure that they can have a seamless shopping experience that fits their needs,” Haley McShane, general manager of InHome, Walmart U.S., said in a released statement.

Industry analysts have mixed views about the service. However, optimists view in-home delivery as an untapped market with considerable room to grow.

Walmart is No. 2 in the Top 1000, Digital Commerce 360’s ranking of North America’s online retailers by web sales. It is also No. 9 in the Global Online Marketplaces Database, Digital Commerce 360’s ranking of top such marketplaces by third-party gross merchandise value (GMV).

Using InHome to drive customer loyalty

Carson Krieg is the Director of Global Alliances and Last Mile expert at the supply chain platform Project44. He says the slice of the retail audience that InHome appeals to is a niche one but is highly loyal. As such, it is something retailers prize.

“InHome offering doesn’t appeal to everyone,” Krieg said. “While the audience likely to leverage the delivery service is niche, it is a high-value and loyal one.”

He added that InHome could also appeal to elderly people or those with health conditions who can’t lug in and put away groceries.

“This is a smart way to create a new subset of loyal customers,” he explained. “Other retailers will likely try to emulate the brand and incorporate similar services, especially as Walmart continues to dominate the grocery segment.”

Innovation and competition

Jeremy Bartlow, a consumer expert at London-based PA Consulting, says that while InHome may be expanding to 10 million new customers, he expects the service to initially appeal to only a small subset.

“Actual usage will likely be much lower shortly, similar to its drone-delivery pilot program,” Bartlow says, adding that a change in consumer behavior and trust is needed for it to catch on.

“These are large barriers, but given the trend towards ultimate convenience for consumers, this may be a solid long-term play,” Bartlow says.

Competitors will also be hard-pressed to replicate the service, giving Walmart an advantage, at least for now.

“While competitors may attempt to replicate this strategy, only a few — perhaps two or three — could realistically compete with Walmart nationally,” Bartlow says.

The InHome concept was developed in Walmart’s now-shuttered Store No. 8 incubator. Store No. 8 was launched as an idea incubator to test new concepts. It was also meant to help keep pace with rivals, especially Amazon. The name was a reference to the early Walmart location where co-founder Sam Walton tried out new concepts.

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The post Walmart’s InHome delivery will now reach more than 45 million U.S. homes appeared first on Digital Commerce 360.