Data and insights can be hugely revealing - and hugely valuable. The Merkle Retail Media Research Report 2022 recently pointed this out in relation to retail media. It reported that data and insights have become standalone products, decoupled from media buys.

Grocery retail data

We can see this in action in the grocery retail sector. Data and insights are valuable commodities.

For example, Northfork's research has shown that, when using its menu planning functionality, 54% of users completed their menu planning in under five minutes. 33% of shoppers completed it in under three minutes. Work with Co-op in Sweden, meanwhile, shows that consumers who shop by recipe have a cart value that is 4.8% higher on average than non-recipe cart value.

"Insights like these are fundamental to retailers' strategies," comments Northfork's Erik Wallin. "Understanding consumer behaviour through data can deliver huge financial gains when that knowledge is used strategically."

More then just tech

Grocery retailers' appetite for data and insights is, understandably, voracious. It's something that Northfork has seen first-hand. The company provides shoppable recipe and menu planning solutions for retailers and third-party publishers. They are easy to implement and can deliver speedy results. However, retailers are looking for more than just tech. They want solutions backed up by solid data, which is an area where Northfork shines.

"Given the ability to analyse so many data points these days, grocery retailers clearly want to make data-driven decisions," explains Wallin. "Data can help to map out likely responses to new features, so can help retailers focus their budgets on the right areas. It can be used to predict consumer behaviours as well as to identify growing trends. All of this puts powerful insights into retailers' hands."

It is unlikely, then, that retailers' hunger for data is going to be sated anytime soon. Instead, the grocery sector is likely to see an increase in the importance of data as a product in its own right over the years ahead.