Digital Grocer Podcast

Digital Grocer hosts Sylvain Perrier and Mark Fairhurst are back for season 6!

In this first show of the season, the duo discusses the latest research findings from Mercatus’ grocery eCommerce forecast, published in partnership with Brick Meets Click. They reveal how the grocery eCommerce forecast will impact grocery retailers’ ability to retain customer loyalty.

The show features Joel Percy, Regional Director at Eagle Eye, and f...

The beards are back with Between2Beards tales from the road.

This time Sylvain Perrier and Mark Fairhurst are on the west coast and travelled out to Coquitlam, BC to visit a brand new Save-On-Foods location that recently opened September 1 2022. Come along as they check out the new grocery store design and layout, and the 16,000 sqft on site MFC that will fulfill online orders come November 2022. (Thanks to Jamie and the store sta...

Coming off a 3 part series exploring recent macro economic grocery trends, hosts Sylvain Perrier and Mark Fairhurst, are joined by Michael Davidson, President and CEO, Buehler's Fresh Foods. 

On this podcast episode, Sylvain, Mike and Mark discuss how regional retailers are handling the changes in the grocery industry, while competing against larger, national grocery retailers and mass merchandisers.

Some of the key topics covere...

Welcome to part 3 in a three part Digital Grocer podcast series discussing the macro economic trends influencing the grocery industry. 

In part 1, Mark and Sylvain were joined by Zac Wilson, Director of eCommerce at Raley's Supermarkets to discuss geopolitical challenges, rising interest rates, and how the pandemic has evolved consumer expectations.

In part 2, they were joined by John Lucot, retired President and COO of Giant Eag...

Today, we are diving deep into Part 2 of a 3 part series where expert grocery ecommerce hosts, Sylvain Perrier and Mark Fairhurst, discuss the effects of grocery inflation on retailers and what is happening behind the scenes in terms of merchandising and operations.  

In Part 1: Grocery eCommerce: Post-pandemic insights and strategy, the hosts were joined by Zac Wilson, the Director of eCommerce at Raley's Supermarkets, where they...

Grocery eCommerce: Post-pandemic insights and strategy with Zac Wilson, Raley's Supermarkets

Mark and Sylvain are joined by Zac Wilson, Director of eCommerce at Raley's Supermarkets. Throughout the episode, they discuss: Geopolitical challenges, the Federal reserve raising the interest rates, the shift in how the pandemic has evolved how consumers experience and interact with grocery ecommerce, changing consumer expectations and d...

In this episode of the Digital Grocer, Instacart’s IPO is on the table and there is much speculation as to its strategy and who would consider acquiring the grocery delivery platform.

This week’s guest is Rick Watson of the Watson Weekly podcast and also CEO and Founder of RMW Commerce Consulting. Instacart’s current position in the grocery retail space, its platform strategy, company valuation, and potential IPO...

Instacart is an online grocery platform that many people have been wondering about when it comes to the company’s long-awaited IPO, and what this will mean to the industry. Hear why we know the IPO is around the corner, despite what Instacart has said recently.

In this latest episode of the Digital Grocer podcast, Sylvain Perrier and Mark Fairhurst discuss some first-hand information they have about Instacart’s up...

Sylvain Perrier and Mark Fairhurst are back for Season 5 of Digital Grocer! In Episode 1, David Bishop joins them as they all become secret shoppers and explore how Amazon Fresh uses convenience as a key selling point. While reviewing several store experiences, the team examines the grab-and go technology and how Amazon prices its products in-store versus online. Lastly, the they talk in depth about the Amazon Fresh strategy to bui...

Sylvain and Mark wrap up their 3 week West coast tour. After finishing up at NGA and Groceryshop, they made their way to Palm Springs, Los Angeles, Riverside California, and the San Francisco Airport Marriott where this episode was recorded. Our hosts touch on a few timely topics including:

• The extremely tight labor market, the competition for talent and the upstream impact on critical components of the supply chain and the ...

Sylvain and Mark hit the road for the first time in 18 months. The first leg of their journey is Las Vegas attending Groceryshop Conference and Tradeshow as well as the National Grocers Association event. Listen in to hear their thoughts on the respective shows, attendance and what hot topics are being discussed on the show floors, up on stage and in one-on-one conversations with grocery retailers.

See omnystudio.com/listener for pr...

This week on Between2Beards, Sylvain and Mark talk about Publicis Groupe, one of the largest marketing and communications companies in the world, announcing it will acquire CitrusAd, an Australian retail media company, and place it within the Epsilon data business. What are the implications for other retail media companies like Criteo, Quotient, Inmar and Instacart as they look to build their own digital advertising solutions? In t...

Sylvain and Mark kick off a new series called Between2Beards, where these two bearded leaders share insights on hot topics this week in grocery.

This week, it’s all about Instacart’s latest ex-Facebook hire, Fidji Simo. While Instacart is a dominant player in the grocery space, what does adding another ex-Facebook exec to their c-suite say about the direction their business is going? Tune-in to Between2Beards, a Digita...

David Hardiman-Evans, SVP, North America for Ocado Solutions, dials in from the UK to speak with Sylvain and Mark about how grocery technology is reshaping the landscape.

David talks about Ocado’s origins in 2000 as an online-only company, which aimed at the outset to find a different way of operating. Their approach includes an emphasis on aggregation, automation and grocery technology, for the purposes of optimizing operat...

Sylvain and Mark begin by discussing two big developments in the grocery industry. One is Amazon’s launch of “pay-by-palm” technology at Whole Foods.

The other is the entry into the market of what Mark calls “pure eGrocery” companies — online companies that sell food direct to consumer. The pair look at the example of Misfits Market, which recently raised $200 million in series C funding, specul...

Mark and Sylvain start by covering the latest news in grocery. Canadian grocer Sobeys’ acquired regional grocer Longo’s in another move by this fast-growing retailer. And in the US, the NGA urges investigation of large US grocers for “illegal and anticompetitive business practices.”

As we consider how the market continues to evolve each month, Mark quotes David Bishop from Brick Meets Click who noted the tw...

Sylvain and Mark kick off this show with a chat about hot industry news: Marc Lore is leaving Walmart and Instacart is hiring a veteran from Goldman Sachs as CFO. 

The duo then welcomes back to the show David Bishop, Partner, Brick Meets Clicks, who’s here today to share key results from his firm’s latest survey: State of the US eGrocery Market, November 2020. David points out that:

“customer ...

This week, Delivery Drivers Inc (DDI) CEO Aaron Hageman joins us on The Digital Grocer podcast. As the pandemic sparks continued growth in the grocery delivery industry, Aaron shares how grocers can quickly and easily scale their own delivery service and how DDI can help.

The need for contactless grocery services has caused a growing demand for delivery. As retailers handle record-high order volumes, many have relied on third-part...

Supermarket Trends for 2021. What supermarket trends can we expect to see in 2021? Sylvain shares more insights on his top 10 predictions for the coming year and how grocers can plan for success.

This year has been like no other, and research from Incisiv and Brick Meets Click have demonstrated just that. As we’ve seen with our retail clients on the Mercatus platform, order volume hit new record highs at Thanksgiving. And it...