Grocery: Front and Center on The World Stage
March brought an incredible opportunity for AMF Sales to visit Dusseldorf, Germany to experience Euroshop 2017. The largest retail trade fair in the world, Euroshop boasted over 113,000 visitors and 2,368 exhibitors from 138 countries, cementing the event as the largest in the fair’s 50 year history 1. Held every three years, this year’s main focus and takeaways were online retailing and storytelling.
The latter is a testament to the importance of the shopping “experience” to modern day consumers. No longer is the shopper looking to get in, grab groceries from the center aisle and get out. Instead the future looks to the sounds, sights, and smells of modern merchandising; enticing consumers to spend more time (and money) in the revolutionary ‘Grocerant’ format. This innovative and exciting format sizes down center store and makes room for restaurant style eating through fresh prepared, deli, and other services. European markets, as well as urban American markets, are on the forefront of investing in food service equipment to serve a plethora of prepared foods from Indian Chicken Tikka Masala to Roman style margherita pizzas. Some even boast wine tastings and craft pubs for shopping customers to enjoy.
Online shopping has been on the minds of grocery owners since retail giants such as Amazon made their move from excellent delivery service to AmazonFresh grocery service. There are many options available for online ordering such as “click and collect”, in house delivery, or third party delivery. The first requires an employee to gather the order that comes in (online or by phone) and have it packaged and available for when the shopper comes to pick it up at the store location during a selected time. The second, requires an employee to pick the items, package them, and then load it on a truck to be delivered to the shoppers’ home. The third option directs other companies, such as Fresh Direct, to pick up the packaged order and transport it to the shopper’s home. In all cases, employees are gathering and packaging for the customer.
While online ordering and food service formats are starting to catch fire with most grocery stores in America, few are equipped to handle the influx of sales and shifting techniques that employees need to handle them. This is where AMF can and will help. After leaving EuroShop we are completely confident and excited for the products our manufacturers can offer as solutions to these changing times. Technibilt already has available Multi Pick carts for employees to use while putting together online ordering for delivery or pickup. The completely adjustable cart has room for plastic totes, a collapsible dolly for large boxes, as well as compartments for smaller items or broken down boxes. Once you have mastered your online ordering and are looking to grow instore sales with massive demands for fresh prepared and deli, we can also step in to satisfy. Unified Brands has customizable commercial kitchen equipment with powerhouse brands such as Groen, Randell, Avtec, and Power Soak. Keep your Grocerant thriving with state of the art equipment that can produce the flavors of the world your shoppers are looking for.
AMF is proud to leave Euroshop knowing our partners are ahead of the trends and ready to customize stores at the highest efficiency for both owners and shoppers. While Euroshop showed the world the future of retail, why wait? Use our contact page to inquire about these unparalleled brands!
1http://www.euroshop-tradefair.com