What Are The New Trends In Grocery Store Business?

This store experience & design guide is a report on retailing strategies for grocers shows how winning organizations can learn to anticipate shopper needs, guide them through a frictionless purchase journey, and even support their customers between occasion gaps with a broad array of ecosystem offerings.

Executive Summary

As the grocery ecosystem has been hugely impacted by pandemic behavior, grocery stores and supermarkets have undergone extensive transformation – optimizing online shopping capabilities, prioritizing flexible delivery solutions and investing in tech solutions to meet inventory needs. As grocery shoppers embrace a hybrid shopping model, where convenience and value are the driving forces, grocery industry leaders are reevaluating how to best serve today’s and tomorrow’s customers.

Report Overview

Within the Grocery Store Playbook, PSFK researchers identify the strategies and tactics grocers can leverage as they look to provide end-to-end customer experiences that are frictionless, personalized, convenient, connected and value-driven. This analysis is presented in three stages of adoption, as retailers look to deliver an optimized retail experience today, tomorrow and in the near future:

• Part one outlines the checklist of foundational services grocery retailers, supermarkets and convenience stores must have in place NOW to meet current consumer expectations and shopping behaviors.
• Part two looks at the NEXT set of strategies that grocery retailers will need to explore as they set out to compete against online grocery shopping players, win customer loyalty, and deliver greater personalization.
• With the groundwork in place, part three considers how progressive shopping experiences are forming NEW strategies that will shape the grocery store of the near future.

Despite supply chain issues, the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing labor shortage, the future of the grocery business looks bright. As you will see from the key trends within this grocery retail industry report, technology is changing the way we shop, what our preferences are and how we want to interact with brands. As this continues, we believe we will continue to see even more changes in how we shop for groceries, and how grocery retailers can better serve its customers and communities.

Research Presentation

In this Grocery Strategy video, the PSFK iQ research team examines the current state of the Grocery landscape, optimistically dissecting weak signals from today to illuminate the key future trends we see impacting, and even reshaping, the consumer experience of tomorrow.

What You Will Learn From This Report

Across 15 Strategies & 50 Tactics, PSFK outlines new ways to respond to evolving consumer behavior and modern technology.

• The technology companies and solution providers that major retailers are partnering with optimize process, improve automation and create connected online and offline experiences
• How consumer data, AI and ML are being combined to deliver personalized experiences across all grocery-related interactions including loyalty programs and membership programs
• The evolution of e-commerce fulfillment, from the convenience of pick-up only and same-day delivery to dark store locations and more
• How sustainable initiatives are providing both consumers and businesses with greater value
• The evolution of store experience & design in the grocery stores, supermarkets and convenience stores
• Why retail grocery stores are being purposefully designed to support equal accessibility for all consumers including individuals with disabilities
• How grocery providers are going beyond the physical store to provide support for their wider communities and helping consumers to reach their own aspirations
• Why localized experiences and product are becoming a leading differentiator when it comes to loyalty across the grocery marketplace

Original Consumer Research

The report also includes analysis from a quantitative survey that PSFK conducted in September, 2022. The audience were US adult grocery store shoppers.

Who Prepared This Report

This grocery industry trends research paper has been developed by the same researchers and analysts who help the world’s leading companies (inc. Nike, Google & Samsung) understand key drivers and activate powerful trends. They help companies that include Nike, Google & Samsung with their sector-leading market research platform and bespoke trends research and innovation consulting.

Published September 2022