[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2017\/02\/15\/customer-engagement-fresh-food-retailing\/#BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2017\/02\/15\/customer-engagement-fresh-food-retailing\/","headline":"The untapped potential of old-fashioned, fresh-food retailing","name":"The untapped potential of old-fashioned, fresh-food retailing","description":"How the food industry can engage customers using old-fashioned techniques to keep up with modern customer expectations.","datePublished":"2017-02-15","dateModified":"2022-09-07","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/contributor\/erica-vialardi\/#Person","name":"Erica Vialardi","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/contributor\/erica-vialardi\/","identifier":185,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c2664653d32060a13d3a268aa0d236fa0ca92ae747e0bbb07fb7b3d9b3b878a5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c2664653d32060a13d3a268aa0d236fa0ca92ae747e0bbb07fb7b3d9b3b878a5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The Future of Commerce","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/logo-foc-schema-app-1.png","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/logo-foc-schema-app-1.png","width":172,"height":60}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/thumbnail-dae6bebee44bdf4de22c9a8f49eaa312.jpeg","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/thumbnail-dae6bebee44bdf4de22c9a8f49eaa312.jpeg","height":375,"width":1200},"url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2017\/02\/15\/customer-engagement-fresh-food-retailing\/","about":[{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/commerce\/","name":"Commerce","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Commerce","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q26643"]},{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/commerce\/commerce-general\/","name":"Commerce","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Commerce","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q26643"]},{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/marketing\/customer-engagement-marketing\/","name":"Customer Engagement","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Customer_engagement","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q5196451"]},"Future of Grocery Retail",{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/commerce\/trends-commerce\/","name":"Trends","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fad","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q787045"]}],"wordCount":1084,"keywords":["Customer Engagement","Food and Beverage Industry","Food Retail","Grocery","Marketing","Retail"],"articleBody":"“Once upon a time, from the top of a hill, farmer Mario embraced the landscape with a content look. At his feet, plantations, orchards and cattle reminded him of his flourishing farming business.”This could sound like the opening of an old-time La Fontaine\u2019s fable. Except I met Mario in 2016, when he sponsored \u201cplanting day\u201d at my son\u2019s kindergarten to promote his organic products, and it is one of the most successful food business stories I’ve bumped into recently. Surprisingly enough, it happened 100 percent offline.New business models for an age-old industryBefore trying his luck in the big city, my farmer friend Mario must have wondered what the future of his business could look like, witnessing the profound disruptions currently affecting the sale of fresh food to consumers. The fresh-food retail industry is indeed popping with new trends.Next to the emergence of alternative retail store formats, the most impressive development of the last few years has of course been that of the online sale of fresh food \u2013 think e-grocery strategies implemented by retailers or, conversely, direct-to-consumer e-commerce sales launched by the brands themselves. In addition, brand-new business models literally sprouted overnight, such as subscription food services.A small-scale, agricultural entrepreneur less far-sighted than Mario could have felt discouraged by this turmoil, but our hero, unlike Don Quixote, did not mistake all those \u201cwindmills\u201d (read: futuristic business models) for unbeatable giants. To find his competitive place, he looked beyond the offering side by focusing on the essential: consumer demand.      The shoppers of tomorrow: Subscription in the age of Amazon                There\u2019s no denying that Amazon has changed the way that traditional retailers do business. In fact, an argument could be made that traditional retailers don\u2019t exist anymore, and that the disruption economy is here to stay. Marketing experts Bill and Steve Bishop of Brick Meets Click discussed the results of their extensive research on the…      Fresh food retailers are leaving consumer demand untappedAll of the above trends sound like \u201cthe next big thing\u201d but they all face the same challenge.In December, I attended a conference on food and all the executives speakers sitting at the round table agreed on the very same point\u2014consumer demand is more than ready for new, online food sales models. Paradoxically, it\u2019s the offering that is lagging behind, which means that companies are not providing the services that consumers would pay for.An Amazon executive at the event had this to say on the topic: \u201cWhen we launch new services, customers are usually very responsive [\u2026] even for the adoption of small, granular services.\u201d      Competing with giants: How to beat Amazon                Retailers are on a race to the bottom if they try to take on Amazon directly. So how to beat Amazon? It's all about the customer.      Don\u2019t forget customer experienceWondering about the difficulties that are holding companies back from \u201cmaking the quantum loop\u201d toward new, online business models in fresh food, we can notice that some hurdles do exist and they all concern customer experience . Let\u2019s examine three recurring, tricky ones.First, product information. Consumers expect to have the same amount of information at their disposal that they have at the store, also during their online purchase. However, compared with other branches, the amount of information grows exponentially for fresh food. Ripeness, color, exact weight, suggestions of use, combinations\u2026 all mean a huge amount of data, high-resolution pictures and other media to manage and update.Secondly, consumers expect a dynamic purchasing experience that reflects an in-person, one-to-one relationship with the vendor. This involves sophisticated capabilities, from a commerce, marketing and sales point of view, such as merchandising and product presentation, shelf personalization, or custom-tailored special offers.A third big area of challenge is the post-sale one, where the vendor must be able to match the consumer\u2019s expectations in terms of delivery location (home\/click and collect), timing (same day, same hour\u2026) and return and service rules.      Online grocery business: Three ways to a key revenue stream                Low margins and high costs plague the online grocery market, but there are ways to boost revenue if grocery retailers collaborate with CPG manufacturers.      When old school reminds us how to engage customersIt’s exactly by tackling the above areas of friction that Mario identified a very well defined market opportunity. The day I met him at the kindergarten, he showed toddlers how to plant grains in the earth, then offered us parents a complimentary bag full of fresh produce, grown on the fields he managed, and explained me more about his business, that included not just produce but also organic meat and dairy.That\u2019s what I call good customer targeting and promotion (parents eager to cook healthy food to their kids). He then gave me a piece of paper printed with \u201cMario \u2013 the farmer \u2013 mobile number\u201d. No website, no email, no list of products, and he told me he would call the following week to take my order. He did.That\u2019s what I call customer engagement.Mario asked me what I wanted, that I could have anything unless it was not the right season. That\u2019s what I call personalization and added-value service (ever wondered why tomatoes taste like nothing in November?). The two aspects that really stunned me, though, were that no minimum quantities were required and that he would deliver the products to my door. That\u2019s what I call competitive differentiation. One week later, he even phoned me to know if \u201ceverything was OK.” That\u2019s what I call customer care.Two months have passed, and Mario told me that his business is growing so fast he had to buy two other trucks to deliver to the city. Considering the products are premium price, it is an amazing success for a 100 percent offline business in today\u2019s hyper-connected market.Clearly, the day Mario will have to scale his business, and he won\u2019t be able to do so without setting up a solid e-commerce, otherwise he will risk to be overwhelmed and lose business. \u00a0This whole story made me meditate on one thing\u2014before starting with (sometimes too) advanced business models based on hype, food retailers should secure the basics first, by better analyzing their customer demand. Combining the old and the new, they should see their very own tale end happily.  Your customers are managing 85% of their relationships online. Omnichannel CX can provide everything they want \u2013 and more.Get started HERE."},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"2017","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2017\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"02","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2017\/\/02\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"15","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2017\/\/02\/\/15\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"The untapped potential of old-fashioned, fresh-food retailing","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2017\/02\/15\/customer-engagement-fresh-food-retailing\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]