Retailer Owned Food Distributors and Associates (ROFDA) wholesalers, along with multiple third-party providers, have teamed up to provide a comprehensive suite of retail media network solutions tailored to members’ needs. This includes targeted advertising opportunities, data-driven insights for campaign optimization and integrated e-commerce and fulfillment with collaborative partnerships that enhance brand visibility.
“As a coalition of wholesale food distributors cooperatively owned by independent retail grocer members, ROFDA represents nearly 7,000 member stores across North America,” said Nick Nickitas, general manager of local independent grocery at Instacart, a ROFDA partner on the project. “ROFDA’s unique advantage is in its deep understanding of the diverse independent supermarket landscape, allowing for customized strategies that resonate with local communities and drive tangible results for brands and retailers.
“The benefit to brands and advertisers is that it provides a way to target and engage local grocers and the communities they serve. Easy and scalable access to this group of independent grocers is something that our CPG partners have expressed interest in targeting for some time now.”
Expanding on this, Eran Harel, SVP of corporate development and strategic partnerships for AppCard, also a ROFDA partner, noted that ROFDA’s leaders were quick to understand that each warehouse and retailer may be using different providers for an array of functions.
“Accordingly, it is trying to pull various parties – often competing entities – to collaborate with one another, from e-commerce vendors to digital coupons providers, from loyalty and rewards to mobile app developers,” he said.
As Nickitas noted, ROFDA sets itself apart by fostering strategic relationships between brands and independent grocers. By prioritizing personalized, community-centric advertising solutions, ROFDA creates a distinct value proposition that resonates with local consumers and strengthens brand affinity.
“ROFDA’s program emphasizes collaborative opportunities that promote mutual growth and success, fostering an environment where brands and retailers can thrive together,” he said. “We’re seeing an unparalleled level of collaboration and cooperation across wholesalers and retailers that is enhancing outcomes for brands and customers in the communities they serve.
“ROFDA’s collaborations with key industry players in the retail media space are strategically designed to bring added value to its member retailers. By forging partnerships with technology providers like Instacart’s Carrot Ads, Givex’s Enterprise Coupon Portal and more, ROFDA enhances its members’ access to innovative tools, insights and resources that optimize advertising strategies and drive business growth.”
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These partnerships, he added, empower ROFDA members with inventive solutions, industry best practices and competitive advantages that will enable them to stay ahead in a rapidly evolving retail environment.
Harel called ROFDA’s approach “a great step in the right direction.” Among other things, it ensures warehouses collaborate and offers an opportunity for grocers to benefit from ROFDA’s size.
“It allows them to amplify the already great work that each warehouse is doing for their own members by offering a true economy of scale,” he said. “The success of the ROFDA initiative will rise and fall, as all participating warehouses align their already existing initiatives with the greater cause of ROFDA, and so will the various third-party providers.
“It is great to see how many have aligned with this important initiative to ensure independent grocers come out of this stronger and continue to serve as the center of their respective communities.”
Jeff Pedersen, president and CEO of ROFDA, echoed those sentiments and noted that the goal in launching the RMN was to give grocers the tools, technology and talent they need to engage customers efficiently and succeed in an ever-changing industry.
“To date, this is one of the largest examples of cooperation and collaboration across the independent grocery industry,” he said.
Randy Arceneaux, president and CEO of Affiliated Foods Inc. and a member of ROFDA’s board of directors, agreed that retail media is the future of how vendor and retailers will be going to market.
“It’s the space that once was occupied by print media and is now taken much further than just a digital ad on a website and hand-held phone,” he said.
The level of detail afforded vendors is unprecedented, according to Arceneaux.
“The ability to give specific shopper information back to the vendor, allowing them to make marketing decisions to drive sales of their brands, opens a new level of information,” he said. “Among other things, the retailers and wholesalers that figure this is out will benefit from additional funding available.
“The ROFDA program allows us the volume that we on our own typically cannot offer to the vendor. Collectively coming together gives us the negotiating opportunities with the vendor community to offer scale.”
Arceneaux added that the difference with ROFDA’s program is approaching it as one entity. “We are teaming up with the experts in the field and utilizing the experience they offer to mesh together one program to approach the vendor community.”
Ray Sprinkle, president and CEO of URM Stores Inc. and a fellow ROFDA board member, said the RMN’s launch is another effort the group has made to offer members value.
“We have strength in numbers. At the same time, we want to make it easy for all companies to do business with ROFDA,” he said. “We feel that this will enhance the CPGs’ ability to reach many independents at one time.”
Dan Funk, president and CEO of Associated Wholesale Grocers and a ROFDA board member, pointed out that providing scale on the digital coupon side of the business with streamlining how to reach the ROFDA members through a single program and portal interface is a competitive advantage AWG and other ROFDA members look forward to having.
“Allowing each of us to increase our scale and return on investment for vendor partners with fewer administrative costs is groundbreaking for all of us,” he said.
On the retail media side, Funk said the partnership with Instacart is another example of bringing together the scale of ROFDA’s participating members to an immediate scalable solution with a leader in the space.
“What is different about both is that we are creating a national footprint for vendor partners to participate with a unique focus on driving independent retailer success through the programs,” he said.
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