All demographics, especially post-millennials and Generation Y, are demanding seamless, customised shopping experiences. What is driving this seismic consumer shift towards personalisation? Two things: time and choice.

Consumers are actively looking to cut down the time spent on the weekly grocery shop. The rise in top-up shoppers since 2014 has seen a growth in the convenience sector as customers exploit channels tailored to busy lifestyles.

Timo Boldt

Internet retailers lead the way for busy shoppers by offering maximum convenience, which has resulted in 24% of the UK shopping online for groceries. Consumers are attracted to ‘any time, any place’ online retailers that can fit into their schedules and accommodate their ‘just in time’ shopping, which includes online recipe kits. Offering free delivery, quality and extensive choice, the ability to ‘outsource’ weekly meal planning is incredibly appealing to consumers.

Still, fresh ingredients, arriving at the right time, in the right place, aren’t enough for consumers. The modern shopper is also challenged with meeting multiple meal preferences in a weekly shop (43% consider a specific dietary requirement when cooking), so they require enough choice to be able to find the ‘right’ food.

Increasingly required to cater to a range of diets and tastes, choice is another factor driving demand for personalisation.

In this environment, only brands able to respond with fully connected, highly personalised experiences and tangible solutions will drive sales.

How can grocery retailers take a more personal approach to their customers to stand out? The prerequisite for a personalised experience is a very deep understanding of the customer. The key to knowing a customer is to identify their preferences.

Robust data capture, cleaning and storing is fundamental to getting further under the skin of customers. At Gousto, we can see in real time who looks at which meal, what they buy and how they rate it. Understanding customer preferences through powerful tech and data capabilities helps us recognise exactly what shoppers want and need. Technology enables brands like ours to personalise offerings, turning this data into useful information, which can be used to inform NPD, guide recommendations, and surprise and delight customers. Artificial intelligence is quickly challenging the landscape for services and products, particularly online.

Grocery should learn from other industries. Netflix has paved the way for personalisation by putting great effort into optimising its algorithm. Offering personalised recommendations based on their preferences, it has increased viewing times and kept subscriber churn low.

Only a solid commitment to technological investment will allow grocery retailers to efficiently personalise their services. It’s incredibly important, with online grocery set to rise 12% to pass £11bn in 2017. Yet the inertia in building winning tech, data and operations capabilities to succeed in personalisation is alarming. Those companies that start making these changes now will see the benefits.

Timo Boldt is CEO and founder of Gousto

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