Mercato, the online grocery e-commerce platform for independently owned grocery stores, is adding analytics tools and features to its platform to drive sales and help merchants compete against national online grocery companies, supermarket chains and big box stores. Mercato also offers merchants on its platform an online sales growth guarantee.
Since the start of the COVID-19 crises (that caused stay-at-home orders and panic buying that left some grocery shelves bare and many grocers scrambling to address new store requirements), Mercato has been adding about 30-50 stores a day to its platform. Mercato.com provides a managed platform-as-a-service with e-commerce, managed delivery, targeted marketing and data analytics tools designed specifically for independent grocers and specialty food stores. Since March 1, grocery sales volume on Mercato.com has spiked about 5,000 percent as independent grocers continue to turn to Mercato to help them get online and delivering quickly – often within 24 to 48 hours.
Working closely with merchants, Mercato has incorporated state-of-the-art tools and features to help neighborhood markets and chains grow their online sales and thrive despite the weakening economy, including:
- Customer and Market Data – Discover products trending in the market area; determine where there are grocery delivery gaps in the community and where to focus marketing.
- Traffic and Sales Analytics – Tracking and reporting for online sales that can be leveraged to enhance in-store product selection and merchandising.
- Geo-Optimized Marketing with Artificial Intelligence – custom, targeted marketing across digital channels to find customers and drive them to the merchant’s online store.
- Seamless Two-Way POS Integration with All POS Providers – Includes inventory, pricing and discounts matching in-store with product pricing, inventory, transactions and loyalty programs.
- Complete Web Shopping Experience in Addition to iOS and Android Apps – With an increasing inventory database of more than 1.1 million items, stores can quickly build out their online inventory listing so customers can shop a store both at home and on the go. Stores also have the ability to add custom items to their store pages to be made available to order, thus making it possible to digitally shop and order up to 100 percent of the items sold in-store.
- A 100 Percent Online Sales Growth Guarantee – Assures grocers their online grocery sales will grow by 100 percent within 12 months of going live on Mercato (contact Mercato for details).
“Many independent grocers are struggling right now with social distancing and the safety precautions they must employ to protect customers and employees amid the COVID-19 crisis. E-commerce is enabling these neighborhood stores to fulfill online orders and compete against Amazon, Walmart and major supermarkets as online grocery sales continue to grow,” said Bobby Brannigan, Mercato founder and CEO. “We’ve worked closely with these merchants, listening to their pain points and opinions and developed robust analytics tools and features that will enable them to grow revenue and serve local customers who depend on them. By supporting these stores, we’re strengthening the local community economies nationwide. It’s really gratifying.”
Mercato’s e-commerce technology increases incremental sales and customer loyalty, especially through its Mercato Green subscription program, which provides unlimited free delivery for an annual fee. This is in addition to providing access to customer and product data and utilizes online marketing campaigns to drive traffic to the online store. Through its partnerships with the leading courier networks, Mercato has the capacity to provide 100 percent delivery coverage across the nation, from high-density cities to rural communities.
Grace’s Marketplace, the European-style neighborhood market in New York, began offering e-commerce and grocery delivery through Mercato in February and finds the platform and analytics tools helpful in recreating the store’s brand online and driving sales.
“Mercato’s platform enables us to closely mirror the in-store experience online. We can also recreate the element of discovery and leverage sales data to see what SKUs are best performing and adjust our product mix,” said Grace’s grandson, Daniel Soares. “We’re able to measure and predict the success of the e-commerce program with views of local searches, customer demographics and analytics reports. This helps us see what products are trending in our area, where there are delivery gaps and how to focus our marketing alongside the marketing Mercato provides.”
After the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Mercato worked to have stores online and delivering groceries within 24 hours for center aisle staples and produce, and 72 hours for most meat, dairy and prepared food items upon receiving their inventory file. See story here.
