Shoptalk Europe 2022 Recap: Grocery Retail Media, Shopper Marketing, and More

Just as Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations wrapped up in London, England, over 3,000 retail changemakers from the likes of Apple, PayPal, Shopify, L’Oréal, and Coca-Cola came together for Europe’s Greatest Retail Show to talk about how consumers discover, shop, and buy products online.  

In this post, we’ve pulled together some key takeaways from Shoptalk Europe, the world’s largest community of retail media decision makers, on current trends in online grocery, shopper marketing, omnichannel data sources, and many more hot topics in the industry today.

Executive Perspectives on the Future of Grocery and Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG)

The pandemic transformed consumer demand for omnichannel grocery offerings. Fast Company stated, “as consumer expectations rapidly shift, leading businesses are adapting new technology to unite the best of the physical and digital worlds into engaging new experiences.” This couldn’t be truer as grocery retailers embraced new technologies and processes to meet surging eCommerce demand, while FMCG brands leveraged online channels to help consumers find, engage with and purchase their products.

One of the most important factors to staying relevant, profitable, and accessible in the world of online grocery is acquiring, centralizing, and deeply understanding your retail data. Then, you’ll be able to optimize campaigns and the digital shelf based on those dozens of data points.

“Data is the currency for the digital ecosystem,” said Ekta Chopra, Chief Digital Officer at e.l.f. Beauty. But, she continued, “It has to be nimble. It has to be flexible.”

Ekta Chopra also noted on future technology: “Now we’re looking at how we actually build a community in the metaverse.”

In a rapidly changing retail landscape, it’s important for CPG brands to gain the ability to effectively reach customers wherever they’re shopping. By taking a unified approach, brands can unlock opportunities for efficient product sales while being able to make faster improvements to ROAS and other campaign performance KPIs.

“Retail media is key. It’s a new business,” said Elodie Perthuisot, Chief E-Commerce, Digital Transformation and Data Officer at Carrefour. “And it’s a new way of working with our CPG partners. The aim of retail media is how together we can improve performance.”

Perthuisot on innovation in retail media said, “Growing the customer database is key.”

New Shopper Marketing Tactics for a Digitally Changing World

Today’s grocery shopper is turning every touchpoint along the path to purchase to find the best deal possible, since inflation and rising costs have affected CPG prices greatly. Shoppers are purchasing food and goods through digital, mobile, and social interactions, and shopping experiences in-store are ramping up again as the world recovers from the pandemic. While shopper marketing activities have historically been largely confined to physical stores, the explosion of grocery eCommerce has prompted an overdue reconsideration of shopper marketing strategies and tactics.

Katharina Sutch, Global Shopper & Omnichannel Activation Director at LEGO Group said, “You don’t have time to wonder how to engage with the customer after they start shopping. You need to be there, and you need to be discoverable.”

Katharina Sutch went on to say, “Retail media can create fun, engaging experiences with customers that surprise and delight them.”

Katy Clark, Head of Grocery, Food & Energy Retail at Meta said, “The key thing right now is making sure operationally we’re communicating as an entire experience with online retail, not just a shopping channel.” She went on to state, “We’re at that moment in time where tech is evolving” and “You have to keep the core principles of marketing the same.”

Alister Greenwood, Head of Global eCommerce Insights & Analytics at Mondelez International said, “The priorities for grocery shoppers are different from impulse shoppers.”

Greenwood proceeded to say, “We talk a lot about the seamless shopping journey, but we’re also trying to work with partners to interrupt shoppers at the right moments to drive impulse.”

Building a full-funnel advertising strategy for every marketplace with messaging and branding that’s consistent yet specifically tailored across platforms is vital for brands to succeed in today’s rapidly evolving world of retail media.

Jonathan Lewis-Jones, Managing Director at Publicis said, “Consistency across a real-world and online experience is so important, but it doesn’t have to mean “matching luggage.” It can be a connected spirit with your brand.” He also went on to say, “Retail media is moving to in-store experiences.”

Integrating and Analyzing Omnichannel Data Sources

The average consumer is now shopping in stores, online and mobile throughout their shopper journey, making the path to purchase more complex for brands to track and understand. Industry pros are collecting and combining data across channels and using it to create a cohesive omnichannel shopping experience.

Cristina Marinucci, Global Head of Shopper Insights & Analytics at Mondelez International said, “Our vision is to have an automated process for data ingestion, then a consistent approach to use that data across the organization, and then finally to make the data reusable and democratize it.”

Marinucci went on to explain, “What we want to get to is prescriptive analytics to change outcomes and improve sales and share.” She elaborated with, “Socializing data within the organization starts with the minimum viable product we need to make decisions.”

Vendors are trying to solve the problem of data coming in from different sources, and then of course, what to do with all that data. The main focus for most brands is learning how to effectively bring more data points together to advance retail media capabilities and optimization.

Joana de Quintanilha, VP and Principal Analyst at Forrester said, “At end of the day, we’re integrating data to drive actions.”

Watch Daily Highlights from Shoptalk Europe 2022

This epic event covered many more sessions, such as groundbreaking marketing strategies and tactics, the sophisticated supply chain, meeting changing customers’ demands, and using data effectively. Whether you were on site at this year’s Shoptalk Europe event or at home suffering with severe FOMO, you can watch some of the magic moments here.

Learn more about unified retail media and omnichannel management to more effectively diversify where your campaigns are running and how to manage multiple platforms efficiently.