Retail 4.0: The future of retail grocery in a digital world
Grocery store consumers are defining the trends that will shape this new generation of sales growth. In response, stores are changing how they do business.
- December 2012
- By Parag Desai, Ali Potia, and Brian Salsberg
Authors
If there’s one thing that always stays the same in retail, it’s change. Since the birth of the first modern supermarket in Memphis, Tennessee in 1916, grocery retail has gone through three transformational eras. The fourth, and arguably most challenging era—the dawn of digital and omni-channel retailing—is just beginning.
McKinsey’s Future of Retail Grocery in a Digital World highlights the major trends that define this new period of retail and looks at how traditional retailers need to evolve in order to thrive. The report focuses on the grocery sector, but also draws on the best practices and experiences of leading retailers in different categories from around the world.
Making sense of retail 4.0
With the usage of PCs, tablets and mobile phones becoming almost universal in the developed economies, the rules of the retail game are rapidly changing. Customers have a new set of expectations for how they go about their shopping. They want experiences that stretch seam¬lessly across various channels and that can be accessed whenever and however they choose No longer niche, e-commerce is becoming a necessary strategy for traditional grocers. As the upstart “e-grocery attackers” become adept at their game, brick-and-mortar stores that don’t adapt may be left to play in the convenience store/food service game, selling low-margin products.
Read the full report on the McKinsey Consumer & Shopper Insights site
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