Las Vegas, Nevada; September 20, 2022 — Invafresh, the industry leading fresh grocery platform, today announces the findings of its 2022 Grocery Innovation Study, which surveyed 100+ grocery decision makers on how their businesses are being impacted by technology.
Findings from the study revealed overall cost reduction measures (48%) and a growing preference for fresh food and the need to maintain its quality (43%) are the main drivers for automating grocery store operations. Increasing margins (28%) and reducing food waste (27%) were perceived as the biggest challenges that technology can solve for the grocery industry.
“Grocers exist at the front line of consumer issues, such as price sensitivities from inflation, supply chain disruptions, and staffing shortages, they are compelled to choose technology to address these issues and are increasingly aware of its benefits in reducing costs, optimizing processes, and in improving both product variety and their customers’ in-store experience,” says Tim Spencer, President & CEO of Invafresh.
The study found that while 64% of grocers believe digital-first grocers like Amazon Fresh pose at least a reasonable threat to their business, the biggest challenges they face are actually those brought on by Covid-19, specifically: 58% of grocers surveyed ranked inflation as one of the biggest threats to their business, followed by supply chain disruptions (48%), and labor costs and availability (43%).
The study showed grocery retailers are willing to adopt new technology as they view AI and automation as helping to solve the key challenges they face. These include reducing cost (43%), improving the customer experience (37%), dealing with labor shortage issues (34%), increasing the quality of products offered (33%), and improving visibility into in-store processes (32%).
“Ultimately, grocers want to be able to see and measure the results of their technology investments. The positive ROI of automation is leading more grocers to commit to increasing their budgets next year,” added Spencer. “Grocers are thinking about how technology can be applied across their entire perimeter store operations.”
In addition to automation, grocery retailers have become increasingly omnichannel focused with 92% having online ordering capabilities, 89% providing an online delivery option, and 81% offering curb-side pickup.
About Invafresh
For more than 30 years, Invafresh has been the leader in enabling fresh food retailers to create extraordinary store operations performance and a differentiated consumer experience. Invafresh is deployed in more than 25,000 grocery stores spanning a global reach of 15 countries and empowers them with omnichannel demand forecasting, merchandising, replenishment, and sustainability and compliance.
Learn more at invafresh.com
