Customer Service

Customer experience is the antidote to uncertain grocery market

The grocery sector has never faced so much uncertainty, but focusing on delivering a powerful customer experience can help maintain long-term, sustainable growth.

Photo: Adobe Stock

September 12, 2025 by Alasdair James — Chief Commercial and Marketing Officer, Swiftly

Competition has never been more fierce between grocery retailers. Digital disruptors are changing the rules of engagement. Food safety regulations are growing more rigorous. Supply chain issues are making it hard to balance supply and demand. The threat of tariffs is creating anxiety and uncertainty. Board members are pushing agility and operational efficiencies. And, if that weren't enough, shopper expectations are as demanding as ever as people expect relevant, personalized experiences that inform and delight.

The list of external headwinds shaking up the retail grocery sector is growing, and executives are scrambling to establish a sense of stability in an uncertain world. Customer experience has emerged as a critical tent pole that drives long-term, sustainable growth, but good CX isn't just about relevancy anymore. Shoppers expect more than just convenience. They want personalization, transparency and meaningful engagement. A strong CX builds emotional loyalty and trust — two assets that endure even when wallets tighten.

Retail customer experiences are frustratingly outdated

Delivering powerful customer experiences that shoppers demand while ensuring they lead to measurable results is hard. Most retailers continue to rely on print mailers as their main top of funnel channel to drive people to stores. But mailers are static, expensive, aren't personalized and, frankly, seem a bit outdated in today's digital-first world. A vegetarian family that receives a mailer advertising beef prices is a waste of marketing dollars and a lost opportunity for further engagement.

Once in store, customers are inundated with displays and coupons scattered throughout the aisles to the point where they start to tune them out if they aren't relevant. Knowing how marketing spend relates to actual transactions is beyond the ability of many retailers — especially for independent and regional grocers who have to compete with digital disruptors like Amazon or large national chains like Walmart that have the resources to invest heavily in digital experiences.

CX can serve as an important differentiator, but delivering on this promise can be extremely difficult and frustrating for independent and regional grocery store chains that have made investments in retail technology but still find themselves far behind their larger competitors.

Using digital technology to drive in-store purchases

Digital is the future of CX, but it's not the only game in town. Retailers need to embrace shoppers where they're at — online or in a mobile app — and drive them to their stores where 70% of grocery transactions still take place. This allows retailers to deliver personalized offers that are actually relevant and track how marketing spend relates to real-life, tangible transactions. A CX strategy that can connect digital interactions with in-store purchases means that retailers can know whether a shopper favors Coke or Pepsi and ensure a vegetarian family doesn't get offered a discount on rotisserie chicken.

Here are three CX strategies you can deploy today with limited up-front investment or on-going maintenance fees:

1. Center the mobile experience

Shoppers are tethered to their mobile devices. It's where discovery, planning, purchasing and loyalty often begin – and end. Mobile is no longer a channel. It's becoming the lead platform for customer engagement. Retailers must ensure their CX strategy starts with a mobile-first mindset that unifies and activates all other touchpoints — including in-store engagement. But don't feel like you have to reinvent the wheel. Find a white-label retail technology platform that you can customize with your own branding, product lists and engagement tools. Just make sure you choose a platform that isn't watered down and provides the same mobile e-commerce capabilities that the big players already deploy.

2. Deliver cohesive, multi-channel experiences that matter

Customers don't think in channels. Instead, they expect consistent, relevant engagement wherever they are – browsing online, scrolling through a mobile app or walking the store aisles. Delivering seamless experiences (engaging online, remembering behavior and pushing a relevant offer when in store) delivers better results and fosters brand continuity and reinforces shopper trust. The goal is to establish long-term relationships with shoppers and drive them to your storefront where 870 percent of transactions still occur, according to eMarketer.

3. Tie awareness campaigns to in-store transactions

Measurement is the key to improving and sustaining customer experiences. Retailers must be able to link marketing investment to outcomes — not just impressions or clicks, but real-world transactions. Closed-loop reporting powered by first-party data enables teams to understand what's working, optimize in real time and justify spend to internal stakeholders. The best part is that you are using your own data stores that you are already buildingcollecting — instead of purchasing data from a third party. Critically, first party data includes transactional data while third-party data does not and is more generalized around demographics. With the right measurements in place, retailers can ensure that they are delivering the right experience to the right shopper at the right time and these efforts are aligned with the company's bottom line.

Investing in the right retail technology allows you to focus on CX

The grocery sector has never faced so much uncertainty, but focusing on delivering a powerful customer experience can help maintain long-term, sustainable growth. They key to good CX lies with having the right retail technology in place — allowing you to focus on mobile to drive multi-channel engagements, improve measurement and transparency and reach shoppers wherever they shop.

However, it's important that you work with the right technology partner to implement this technology appropriately and efficiently with little up-front investment or on-going maintenance. Only then can you use good, quality CX to insulate your organization in these uncertain times without breaking the bank.

About Alasdair James

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