The Grocery Tech Landscape 2018

The trends and companies in grocery retail that you need to look out for this year. Are you well prepared?

As the offline grocery retail market is becoming more and more digital-, data- and technology-focussed, the “Grocery Tech Landscape 2018” overview of companies will help retailers stay on top of the competition when it comes to adapting to the latest technologies. When combined with the TNW x Deloitte Startup Landscape for European Retail Tech 2018 it gives a pretty good idea of which solutions are available in the market at the moment.

Most obvious technology trends may be in-store robots that show customers the way to a wanted product or self-checkout systems which replace human cashiers. But there are many fields along all parts of the user journey as well as the supply chain where technology startups as well as established companies have found ways to improve things and disrupt current solutions.

Many technology forecasts suggest that Artificial Intelligence will play a significant role in the future of grocery retail which is why it is included in the “Grocery Tech Landscape 2018” as a meta category. AI is currently being worked on by many companies, big and small. The other categories which the map focuses on are assortment planning, big data and data processing, customer insights, customer loyalty, e-commerce, in-store analytics, in-store marketing technology, price optimization, promotion optimization, and promotion targeting.

All in all the opportunities have never been greater for retailers to increase sales, keep customers happy, and automate multiple internal and external processes with technology. It may be a slow moving industry, but it’s success relies, from a technical point of view, on constant availability and uptime of systems, e.g. with their tills. When one technical or organizational component fails to perform up to standards other parts are affected and a retailer can expect huge losses. Retail organizations work like clocks and processes are closely connected and often dependent on each other, which means tech innovations must be carried out with greatest care. But to stay alive and succeed in a time where online giants are taking over the offline market the industry will have to move forward and embrace new ideas.

Fresh ideas for retail is what the tech landscape 2018 is all about. And about connecting retailers to the best possible fit for their next step towards retail 4.0.