CART Weekly Report:Â Consumer Expectations Driving the Market

THE STEALTH BATTLE FOR SHARE-OF-WALLET

I’ve written several times about Kroger’s recently released results reporting the company’s 48th consecutive quarter of same store sales growth, an increase of 5.4% in same store sales, and growing shopper traffic. Those incredible results largely driven by Kroger’s strategic targeting of promotions to grow the value of individual shopper households.

What few in the industry understand and appreciate is what’s happening under the surface of top line sales. It may seem obvious that as Kroger...

RETAIL LEASE COSTS AND TECHNOLOGY

You’re probably wondering what retail leases have to do with technology? Well, I didn’t immediately connect the two either until a recent meeting. As some readers know, I regularly guest lecture at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. One of the professors had provided my name to the GU Law School which organizes an annual conference focusing on real estate, particularly on lease agreements for malls and shopping centers.

Many lease agreements call for a tenant to pay a base...

CES breaks records, draws 170,000 attendees
TWICE

Each January the CES show in Las Vegas is the showcase for all the consumer electronics companies to present their latest and greatest products. The show has grown to include nearly every type of consumer-facing technology and this year included self-driving cars to virtual reality to the internet-of-things. As this article calls out, the show this past week had record attendance of around 170,000 people. I think this speaks to 1) the ongoing explosive growth of technology-fueled innovation...

7 tech trends that will rule CES 2016
Mashable

This article calls out 7 key trends that were seen emerging from the CES Show this past week in Las Vegas. I think two of these trends are important to supermarket retailers. The first is the growth of virtual reality, which is forecast to explode in 2016. A growing number of companies including MIcrosoft, Samsung, Google, and Oculus (owned by Facebook) are just some of the big players in the space. We are already seeing some companies using VR technology to provide an immersive shopping...

How Virtual Reality Will Change the World
Consumer Technology Association

As called out in the earlier story we believe virtual reality is going to impact shopping and retail in a major way and help drive even more business to online. When through virtual reality a shopper can have the experience of walking into and around a store, selecting products, putting them in her basket, and checking out and then have those products show up at your door a few hours later, why bother going to the actual store? Related to virtual reality is augmented reality. CART is already...

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About the Author
The CART Blog is authored by Gary Hawkins. Hawkins has over 30 years of retail industry experience and has been awarded numerous accolades, including Grocery Headquarter's Retailer of the Year, Inc. Magazine's Best Store in America, and Supermarket News' Technology Excellence Award. Gary is an internationally published author and a contributor to the Harvard Business Review.