According to this article by Jinjoo Lee, supermarkets are losing market share and customers to big-box retailers like Costco Wholesale who has a highly efficient operating model and leans on membership fees and sales volume to generate revenue and profits. Walmart, who controls nearly 25% of the grocery market, and Amazon, are also impacting traditional supermarkets. Aldi, Lidl, Dollar General, and even restaurants are taking market share.
What the article doesn’t cover is that supermarkets are fighting back against their traditional and non-traditional competitors by using technology. The missing ingredient for most supermarkets is a lack of technology.
For example, during a recent call with Sheila Mulholland of 345 Global, Sheila provided me with a list of supermarkets (and other retailers) that have turned to 345 Global to create digital twins of all of their stores; some of the retailers have thousands of stores and each will have a digital twin. A digital twin is a virtual model designed to accurately reflect a physical store, its products and supporting infrastructure. (I don’t work for 345 Global so I can’t name the retailers but they’re all of the leaders in the industry.)
345 Global is the only company that has Level 7 digital twin capabilities giving retailers unheard of analytic, simulation, and collaboration opportunities with brands and CPG companies to understand and improve product performance at the shelf and increase sales.
Supermarkets are also using the software to innovate the center of their stores.
(Everyone keeps talking about ChatGPT. 345 Global’s software is much more impressive to me. 345 Global is like a high-performance gaming platform for retail.)
Supermarkets like the fact that using 345 Global’s platform allows them to eliminate using software from Blue Yonder, Trax Retail, InContext Solutions, Kantar, and Brandbank. This is a major selling point.
Mark Edwards, CEO of 345 Global, will be speaking about why so many supermarket chains and retailers have turned to 345 Global at the Groceryshop conference being held in September in Las Vegas.
I must also point out that this article makes it appear that physical stores aren’t important to Amazon. That’s false. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has made it clear that the company wants more physical stores. Although Lidl is mentioned in the article, they have been unable to achieve the growth they desire in the U.S. I encourage Amazon to meet with Lidl to discuss acquiring their stores and rebranding them. Amazon should explore an acquisition of Trader Joe’s. Amazon can assess acquiring stores from Kroger and Albertsons as they merge. Stores remain Amazon’s Achilles Heel.
I encourage Jinjoo Lee to write a follow-up article on the topic of supermarkets and how they’re turning to companies like 345 Global, Venvee, Inc., and others. Technology is changing the game.
