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grocery ordering

December 15, 2017

Peapod Hopes Its Chat-to-Cart Feature Boosts Its Bottom Line

The grocery delivery space is moving far beyond the task of bringing fresh kale and imported cheese to your doorstep. Merely offering the luxury and convenience of avoiding crowded grocery aisles is no longer enough to woo time-starved consumer, who now has myriad choices when it comes to selecting a personal supermarket shopper.

If it’s tech inspired bells and whistles you want, Peapod, a 28-year veteran of the grocery delivery wars, is attempting to boost its sagging growth by adding a new text-to-order tool. Dubbed “Chat to Cart,” consumers can create lists on their phone via text (not to mention voice-to-text or emojis) and send them over to Peapod for fulfillment. The new feature was developed by Chicago-based online shopping tools developer, StorePower.

To use the service, customers text the toll-free number, 1-833-TXT-PPOD and provide a list of products by name or by emoji symbol. The service includes an option to share the shopping list among family members who can add products to the order. After an initial order, or once the number is saved, orders can be placed via Siri or Google Assistant.

“At Peapod, we have always been committed to being the ultimate convenience for our customers,” said Cat De Merode, Peapod’s VP of product in a company release. “The Chat-to-Cart platform was designed for the busy shopper that relies on their mobile device whether at home or on the go. Now, instead of texting a family member to pick up an extra gallon of milk, you can text Peapod and let us do the work. The texting functionality complements the Peapod mobile app and desktop website for one seamless ordering process.”

While digitally based grocery shopping makes up only 3.8% of the grocery retailing market, researchers see a bright future.  Packaged Facts, based in Rockville, MD., believes online grocery sales will go grow from a CAGR of more than 27% over the next five years. By 2022, the company says online sales of grocery items may be worth as much as $42 billion annually.

Peapod’s owner, Dutch-based Ahold Delhaize would like the digital delivery service to contribute more to its overall bottom line. In its most recent quarter, Ahold’s ecommerce revenue was up 20% but Peapod grew in the single digits. Company officials claim its various supermarkets, such as Food Lion, have not successfully integrated Peapod into their services.

Putting aside specialty delivery services such as Farmstead, players in the online grocery/delivery market are running low on competitive factors. Advances such as Walmart’s partnering with Google Home to gain access to their voice-enabled assistants does precious little to create any distinction among the Peapods, Instacarts and Shipts of the world (not to mention store-branded delivery services). Blurring the lines even further is the growing overlap between grocery and restaurant delivery with such all-purpose digitally powered, food-to-home services as Postmates promising speedy grocery services in New York.

That $42 billion revenue figure for grocery delivery sounds like a hefty prize, but the question remains—how much will go to the one-two punch of Amazon/Whole Foods and how many remaining companies will be spending millions to grab minor slivers of market share.

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April 24, 2017

MasterCard Sees Bot Applications As A Way To “Go Where Consumers Are”

We know the potential for the chatbot interface to be one of the defining stories of connected living in 2017 is there. Mike has covered the variety of ways that “social messaging chatbots” will impact the smart home and of course, the smart kitchen. MasterCard isn’t new to the smart home game -- you might remember that they are the financial provider backing grocery ordering on Samsung’s FamilyHub smart fridge.

They’re clearly betting on bot applications as a way to encourage the easy use of their products on the Masterpass platform. Last week at Facebook’s developer conference, MasterCard announced a chatbot for Facebook Messenger, allowing customers to order from select retail and food vendors by chatting with the AI-powered interface. Similar to the on-fridge ordering partnership on the FamilyHub, MasterCard will work with Fresh Direct for chatbot grocery needs and also announced Cheesecake Factory and Subway for takeout food services.

MasterCard has prioritized chatbot integrations, releasing its bot API to developers earlier in the year. According to their developer site, MasterCard wants to make it easy to incorporate their “digital payment technology into conversational commerce experiences.” Beyond food ordering, the platform could be used to order from any retail partner in the future -- giving Facebook an easy way to compete with online commerce giants and keeping consumers on the platform longer.

Masterpass-Enabled Bots

Facebook is increasingly interested in bot technology and sees its Messenger platform as a way for brands to reinvent customer communications and e-commerce. Facebook advertising, an increasingly popular way for brands to reach consumers by taking advantage of all the data Facebook collects on its users and serving them up personalized ads. Brands that advertise and have a large presence on the platform often use Facebook Messenger to communicate with customers, sending order and shipment information after a sale and answering questions. You can envision a future where as ad served up to someone who had recently been browsing for new shoes takes them to a chatbot that can offer custom selections and complete the sale right in the interface.

The opportunities in using natural language processing and artificial intelligence to communicate with us wherever we’re used to having conversations -- whether that’s via text or in different messenger apps -- are huge. Since Facebook introduced the concept, over 11,000 bots have been introduced on Messenger.

Whether it’s helping consumers cook their favorite recipe, ordering food or even communicating with their home, chatbots are definitely here to stay.

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