Dave Abbott, CMO at Brookshire’s Grocery Company, joins the Digital Grocery Podcast to share eCommerce lessons across multiple retail verticals, from apparel to home improvement, to now grocery. What element has remained true across each vertical? The brick-and-mortar experience is still key.

Sylvain and Mark begin by covering the most recent news in grocery and big tech. Notably, Amazon’s new Shopper Panel, where they offer compensation to shoppers for submitting receipts, to collect t-log data on their competitors.

As we consider how other verticals relate to grocery retail today, Dave joins the conversation. He notes a common thread in certain verticals, where eCommerce represents a small percentage of sales, but websites are vital to the product research and decision-making process for shoppers.

“The website is an enabler and information provider for the grocery store, just like it was in home improvement. So in that regard, it's actually very similar.

When we look at our investments from a marketing perspective, we have to think about, holistically, what is the end to end journey of that customer, both interacting with the store and the website, and make our investment decisions accordingly.”

When asked what is central to the online shopping experience, Dave explains why it can’t just be about convenience.

“You don't get that excitement when you get the box on your front door. It commoditizes the whole experience, if you will. And I think the brick and mortar experience done well is still going to be a center of attention.”

The pandemic has certainly had major impacts on the grocery industry. As a retailer serving shoppers across Texas, Dave shares the importance of offering an essential service at this time.

“You would be shocked about how many letters we received say, "You're lifesavers." And they really mean that. It's not like, "Oh, you saved me a dollar on my purchase," that you're a lifesaver. No, they literally feel that we're making them safer.”

Tune in to listen to the full podcast, and hear more lessons from Dave Abbott on eCommerce success factors across multiple verticals.