E-commerce and technology have revolutionized transactional commerce and are becoming a pillar of the supermarket business.
Today, consumers have multiple options of getting their food and drugs. Consumers can order groceries without ever stepping foot in the store. They can select items online to pick them up at the curb. Or even pay ahead, grab items off the shelves and leave without waiting in line to pay a cashier — such as at Amazon’s new checkout-less convenience store Amazon Go.
And now Albertsons Cos., one of the largest food and drug retailers in the United States and No. 178 in the Internet Retailer 2018 Top 1000, has teamed up with venture capital firm Greycroft to create a $50 million fund that will invest in emerging companies and technologies in the grocery sector.
“Albertsons Cos. is committed to meeting customers wherever and however they like to shop, and part of that is being at the forefront of the tremendous innovation our industry has seen over the last five years,” said Shane Sampson, chief marketing and merchandising officer for Albertsons.
The fund is expected to help further a wider tech strategy to identify potential partners and opportunities that could help the company capitalize on innovation in retail grocery.
The fund will utilize Greycroft’s investment expertise and connections into the early-stage technology industry and Albertsons’ grocery expertise and coast-to-coast footprint to provide insights and opportunities to partner with new and emerging technologies impacting the grocery sector.
“As our e-commerce companies scale, they often incorporate a brick-and-mortar strategy to reach the entire U.S. market,” said Ian Sigalow, co-founder and partner of Greycroft. “This partnership with Albertsons Cos. will enable our companies to tap into their 34 million weekly customers, across a wide range of industries, including consumer products, healthcare, wellness, pharmaceuticals and grocery. We believe that consumers should be able to get access to these high-quality products and services whenever they want, wherever they want, and that requires a coast-to-coast footprint.”
Earlier this month Walmart announced plans to pilot a robotics system for its fast-growing online grocery pickup service in its supercenter store in Salem, N.H. The retailer has teamed up with Massachusetts-based Alert Innovation to deploy its Alphabot, a robot that will do the grocery shopping, not the consumer.
And another grocery retailer entered the online delivery, Kroger, America’s largest grocery chain. Kroger Ship launched in Cincinnati, Houston, Louisville and Nashville. It said it will “quickly” expand the service to other markets over the next few months.
Amazon also launched curbside pickup at Whole Foods stores in Sacramento, California, and in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The firm has plans to launch in other cities this year.
Investment in the food and beverage sector has more than tripled since 2013 amid ongoing industry disruption by startups and incubators, according to Coresight Research. Coresight projects U.S. online retail sales of food and beverages will top $20 billion in 2018.
