Kroger’s enthusiastic embrace of technology promises to help the grocery chain thrive during the Fourth Industrial Revolution, a technology expert writes.
The $9 billion Restock Kroger initiative, launched in the fall of 2017 to help develop Kroger's omni-channel business, combined with a major harnessing of technology for better knowing and serving each customer, is part of the company's overall response to a rapidly changing business and social environment, argues Bernard Marr, an author of books on business and technology, in an article in Forbes.
Kroger already sends some 3 billion personalized recommendations to its customers each year; the company is working to apply technology toward tailoring those to the individual tastes and needs of each shopper.
The company is also on track to place its Scan, Bag, Go program — which enables customers to scan and pay for products using their smartphones — inside some 400 stores by the end of this year, Marr notes.
From Kroger to your door
Kroger is also at work automating its warehouses to offer a customer-delivery service using autonomous vehicles.
“With 2,782 grocery stores under nearly two dozen names in 35 states, Kroger plans to leverage its data, shopper insights and scale to help it remain a leader in the marketplace of the future,” writes Marr. “According to a study by the Food Marketing Institute, online grocery is expected to account for 20 percent of all grocery retail by 2022 and reach $100 billion in consumer sales, so Kroger and its competitors are smart to figure out ways to use technology to their advantage.”
By Edmund Mander
Director, Editor-In-Chief/SCT
