The chairman and chief executive of retailer Kroger, Rodney McMullen, has presented five predictions for the future of retail at the NRF 2019 Big Show held in New York City at the weekend.
In a presentation entitled Restocking the future: Kroger's insatiable appetite to play and win the long game, McMullen outlined the following predictions on how he sees retail developing in the coming year:
Retail Won't Go Away: The industry experiences disruption and transformation every few years, but it's happening at a more rapid speed than ever before, McMullen advised. Leaders in the industry must be willing to not only accept and react to change, but also transform their growth model.
Retail Will be Digital and Physical: Technology and digital are already mainstays of today's retail; however, in the future of retail, customers will not spend meaningful time thinking about physical versus digital. Customers will always choose the shopping modality – whether physical or digital – that will deliver anything, anytime and anywhere.
Retail will Offer New Solutions to Customers: Retailers will create solutions on customers' terms. With this in mind, Kroger has announced that it is building an ecosystem that offers a variety of modalities, including brick and mortar, delivery, pick up and ship.
Retail will be Purpose-Driven: Retail will solve problems not only for customers, but also for communities and the planet. Stakeholders are increasingly deciding which businesses to support based on shared values and clarity of purpose.
Retail will Disrupt the Ad Industry: McMullen said that retailers are uniquely positioned to know how customers behave and react to marketing messages, which has led the group to introduce Kroger Precision Marketing, a targeted advertising platform for FMCG firms to reach Kroger's more than 60 million customers.
In the 30-minute presentation, which was moderated by CNBC's Sara Eisen, McMullen also highlighted the Zero Hunger | Zero Waste plan, through which Kroger is seeking to eliminate waste across the entire firm by 2025, as well as end hunger in the communities in which it serves.
In February, the retailer plans to announce an initiative that will see up to $1 million awarded to profit and non-profit innovators developing solutions for food waste prevention to test and scale solutions.
© 2019 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
