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GROCERYSHOP 2018 PERSONA

MARKETPLACE MAVENAs the Grocery Marketplace Maven, you want to understand the current ecommerce landscape, grow your

customer base, earn a competitive advantage over your competition, extend product offerings not available in

your physical stores, and crack the code in fulfilling the Last Mile delivery challenge. You want to know the

pros/cons and challenges of creating your own marketplace and/or being a player on established

marketplace(s) – think Amazon, Walmart, and the upcoming Albertsons Marketplace.

YOU REALIZE:

• Barriers to buying groceries online are melting away. So far in 2018, almost HALF of Americans have purchased groceries (CPGs) online. Among millennials, the rate is even higher, at 61% (Food Marketing Institute (FMI) and Nielsen).

• Annual U.S. online retail sales of food and beverages is expected to exceed $20 billion for the first time in 2018 (Coresight Research); and is estimated to reach $100 billion between 2021 and 2023 (FMI and Nielsen).

• Brick-and-mortar grocers, such as Walmart, Target, Kroger, Albertsons, Sam’s Club, etc. are investing in people and technology to capture the market growth.

• One of the biggest challenges in online grocery is fulfilling the “Last Mile” on razor thin margins.

ROADBLOCKS TO TACKLE:

• Complete a competitive analysis and a ROI business case to justify building a marketplace vs. joining an existing marketplace

• Join Existing Marketplaces:

– Determine if your offerings are aligned with established marketplaces; and identify your competitors within those marketplaces. Concerns include lack of Brand building, flexibility, customization and control. Fees and commission structure can impact profits.

• Build a Marketplace Platform

– Develop an offering (products and services) that will differentiate you from other established marketplaces. Lacking the infrastructure to efficiently fulfill the 'Last-Mile' can be a problem. Customer service call center needed to handle customer inquiries and concerns.

NEED HELP? STOP BY THE CONCIERGE BOOTH #501

www.fitforcommerce.com | ffcinfo@fitforcommerce.com

NEED HELP? STOP BY THE CONCIERGE BOOTH #501

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RELATED RESOURCES IN THIS PACKET

To help you navigate the expo hall, check out the category map for some of the solutions and

technologies that you will want to explore.

FitForCommerce has also developed Best Practices Checklist and Key Questions to Ask Providers designed to help you prepare and make the most out of your time

at Groceryshop.

Date

Oct 29

Oct 29

Oct 30

Oct 30

Oct 30

Oct 30

Oct 30

Oct 31

Time

10:00-10:40AM

3:30-4:10PM

9:15-9:55AM

10:00-10:40AM

3:30-4:10PM

4:15-4:55PM

5:00-5:40PM

10:10-11:10AM

Location

Track Room 1

Track Room 1

Track Room 2

Track Room 1

Track Room 1

Track Room 2

Track Room 1

Track Room 1

Type

Keynote

Session

Session

Session

Session

Session

Session

Workshop

Session title

Meeting the Demands of Millenials and Gen-Z

Shifting CPG Marketing Strategies: New Media Platforms and Partnerships

Using Data to Drive In-Store Conversion

Using Product Content to Build Brands

Innovations in Private Brand Strategies

Experiential Store Design

Pioneering Brands: Disrupting with New Business Models that Meet Shopper Needs

Content Marketing for Grocery and CPG

RELATED SESSIONS

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973.379.7399 | info@fitforcommerce.com | www.fitforcommerce.com

MARKETPLACE MAVEN

Amazon Marketplace: Best Practices

1. Be specific around your unique Amazon strategy. First, determine your Amazon goals – is it to increase market share in a category? Increase brand visibility? Increase revenue? Improve profitability? Reach a demo or a region that you otherwise cannot reach with existing channels? Then, define the metrics that tie back to this strategy.

2. Selecting which method to sell on Amazon is important for carrying out your Amazon channel strategy goals. Be prepared to select from a few methods of selling on Amazon – a direct retail relationship with Amazon, FBA (Fulfilled By Amazon), or Marketplace Seller (as a single owner or business selling on the Amazon marketplace). There are pros and cons to each channel strategy and whichever method you select should tie back to your overall Amazon strategy.

3. If you go the Marketplace route, it’s quite simple – register to sell, list products, sell, and collect payments. Everything is done within Amazon Seller Central. It’s self-service and intuitive to use. You’ll see daily sales, get notified of orders to be shipped, and collect payment, all in one seller central. Amazon Seller Central also offers various options for product uploading, inventory and performance management, and product catalog management.

4. Optimizing for product visibility and search-ability on Amazon is similar to optimizing SEO. Product titles are important for determining the rankings of your listings within Amazon search. Make sure they are succinct, without promotion verbiage, and that the order of product attributes is correct for the given product category. Utilize product descriptions as quick descriptive text with keywords embedded. Check the specific product category rules as there may be standards for each bullet type. Quality product images are essential to a successful selling experience. Also, enter up to 50 search terms in the product CMS to ensure your product seeds within search for those keywords (product title, UPC, manufacturer and merchant are auto-listed as keywords).

5. Specify as many attributes as possible for your products. Your products will not display in related searches if your data feed does not explicitly call out attributes (color, sizes, variations, etc.). It is also ideal to upload different images to represent the various color or size

variations of the product, so the product detail page is even more descriptive than other similar products. When selling on Amazon, quality text and imagery on your product detail page is key to winning business over competitive products!

6. Understand the Amazon Buy Box. A key feature of the Amazon platform is that multiple sellers can offer the same product. If you’ve listed a product that is offered by more than one seller, each seller may compete to win the “Buy Box” for that product. This process is automated by Amazon.

7. Outsourcing some components of Amazon sales, fulfillment, and marketing operations has proven effective for millions of small-to-medium sized businesses operating as 3rd party marketplace sellers on Amazon. It allows you to focus on your core business, and automate Amazon.

8. Experiment with Amazon Marketing Services. Use a credit card to pay for self-service and bid on ads across the Amazon platform, or start a relationship with Amazon Media Group (for large-scale ad budgets generally $1M+).

9. Check your stats daily in Seller or Vendor Central. It’s important to keep a close eye on your Amazon business. Check your sales, orders, inventory availability, and fulfillment metrics daily to ensure your products are still live on site and not pulled for any errors (one example being high customer complaint for damage defect rates).

10. Keep pricing information up-to-date. When a buyer searches for your product, the offer listing page shows the lowest shipping-inclusive priced items first. Shoppers are more likely to choose the lowest price deals listed closest to the top of the listing page, so if you hold a sale or lower your prices, make sure you update your product listings to reflect those changes.

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MARKETPLACE MAVEN

Amazon Marketplace:Key Questions to Ask Providers

Company

1. What is your business?

2. What is your core competency?

3. What is your topline and profitability?

4. What does your target demographic look like and their average order value?

5. Is there an opportunity to increase your AOV?

6. Is there an opportunity to increase market share by going after different demographics?

7. What are your fulfillment capabilities (pros/cons)?

8. Is there any improvement to be made to your existing acquisition and retention strategies?

Products / Services

1. What kind of product are you trying to sell on Amazon (could be physical product, content, a service, etc.)?

2. Sales on Amazon could also impact sales on your own website, thereby inventory velocity could pick up quicker than you’d imagine. Do you have inventory availability allocated to the Amazon channel and its peripheral impact to your website sales?

3. What are your products’ competitive advantages and why do users buy your products over other similar products?

4. What kind of customer reviews do you have on your products, within your own ecosystem?

5. How can you further improve your existing customer reviews of your products?

6. How sturdy is your existing analytics platform?

7. Do you have quality product imagery, description copy, graphic assets ready to go?

8. Do you have a team internally ready to dedicate time and resources to selling on the Amazon channel? You may require a retail channel manager specific to Amazon, as well as a digital marketing manager, and your fulfillment and operations teams will also require specific Amazon training.

9. How much time and money are you willing to invest into the Amazon channel to seed initial sales (going into a new channel sometimes requires investment upfront)?

10. What is your existing customer service process and how can you integrate into the Amazon experience?

11. What portion of your product portfolio do you plan on porting over to the Amazon platform?

Why Amazon?

1. Why do you want to sell on Amazon?

a. What is your goal? A dollar or marketing goal?

2. How familiar are you with Amazon metrics? If not, read up on Seller Central or Vendor Central help guides.

3. Do you have a product selection strategy on Amazon? Determine which products you’d like to sell on Amazon, then determine pricing policies.

4. Do you have a pricing strategy on Amazon?

5. Will you price products the same on Amazon as on your other distribution channels?

6. What is your 1-year, 3-year, 5-year goal with selling on Amazon?

7. Are you ready for possible cannibalization of sales from your existing ecosystem?

8. Are you prepared for drastic inventory volume increases as a result of selling on Amazon?

9. Are you better suited to form a direct relationship with Amazon, or become a seller on the third-party marketplace? (Stringent fulfillment metrics must be met to have a direct relationship.)

Pricing

1. How do you determine product pricing and how do you optimize for margins in your product P&L (price – cost)?

2. Are there any other costs associated with selling your products or any additional revenues generated per unit sold?

3. Will you price your products differently on Amazon than on your own website?

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MARKETPLACE MAVEN

Creating a Marketplace: Best Practices

1. Choose Your Niche. You Can’t Be Everything to Everyone. Consider targeting a vertical market instead of a horizontal one. Vertical market vendors focus on delivering specialized products or services that meet the needs of a niche group of customers. Specialization helps vertical vendors to differentiate their marketplaces and gain a competitive advantage.

2. Start in a Limited Area and Expand Gradually. Allows you test the worthiness of your business idea before expansion, reduce expenses and possible risks, gain a critical mass of users, and get useful insights into how your target audience reacts to your products.

3. Onboard Enough Vendors (Sellers). Sourcing products from a variety of vendors will ensure continuous product availability and breadth of assortment. Competition amongst vendors will naturally ensure competitive prices and great quality of service.

4. Target the Right Vendors to Fit Your Niche / Brand Strategy. Partner with vendors that have the willingness or internal structure to perform on marketplaces. Target active vendors in other marketplaces, and review their track record, ratings and reviews. The more important your marketplace is to them, the better they will perform on it.

5. Track Vendors’ Performance. Managing and tracking vendors’ quality of service is key to preserving your brand and making your marketplace a success. Enforce high standards by automatically deactivating vendor accounts if their ratings dip below a certain value, or if their rate of response is too low.

6. Vendor Management Module. Provide a vendor management module (tools) to enable vendors to manage their individual product inventories, product content, prices, orders, payments, etc.

7. Build Customer Trust Through Transparency. Consumers value transparency in the purchases they make. They like to know who the vendor is and be aware of any after-sales service that might be required. Provide the ability for vendors and consumers to communicate directly, while ensuring that you still own the relationship.

8. Ensure Consistent Quality of Product Information. Ensure all vendors’ product data meets your content specifications and falls within the right product classification and that each new product sheet meets your criteria. Consistency is key to maintaining customer trust and ensuring an optimal purchasing experience.

9. Total Company Buy-in and Commitment. A successful marketplace is dependent on buy-in from all stakeholders, e.g., senior mgmt, merchandising, marketing, ecommerce, IT, operations, etc. An aligned, integrated cross-functional operation will ensure success and a great customer experience.

10. Invest in Traffic Generation. Invest in the utilization of SEO and SEM tactics to increase site visibility within search engines (Google, Bing, etc.) to generate increase site traffic.

Successfully launching and operating a marketplace requires detailed planning, strong strategic vision, and commitment. Below are some best practices you should absolutely consider when launching a marketplace.

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MARKETPLACE MAVEN

Creating a Marketplace:Key Questions to Ask Yourself!

Company

1. What is your business?

2. What is your core competency?

3. What is your topline and profitability?

4. What does your target demographic look like and their average order value?

5. Is there an opportunity to increase your AOV?

6. Is there an opportunity to increase market share by going after different demographics?

7. What are your fulfillment capabilities (pros/cons)?

8. Is there any improvement to be made to your existing acquisition and retention strategies?

9. Is there total “buy-in” and commitment from all stakeholders?

Products / Services

1. What are your competitive advantages over other marketplaces?

2. What kind of products are you anticipating to sell?

3. Why would users buy your products over other websites / marketplaces?

4. Will these products impact (cannibalize) sales on your own branded website?

5. Will you be able to attract and retain enough vendors (sellers) to provide a continuous flow of products (breadth and depth)?

6. Have you created a vendor product setup “Standard Operating Process” (SOP) to ensure data meets your content specifications and falls within the right product classification and that each new product sheet meets your criteria?

7. How much are you willing to invest into the channel to seed initial sales (going into a new channel sometimes requires investment upfront)?

8. Since consumers value transparency in the purchases they make and would like to know the vendor making the sale and any after-sales service that might be required, are you willing to provide the ability for vendors and consumers to communicate directly?

9. Do you have an internal team ready to dedicate time and resources to sell and manage vendor (seller) accounts?

10. Is it PCI compliant and certified?

Features

1. Security is Priority One: All users’ personal information must be secured and kept in strict confidence.

2. Managing User Profile: Registered users should have accessibility to view, update and manage their personal details within their accounts.

3. Vendor Account Registration: Vendors will require access to all functionality provided to manage and sell their products based on established selling policy.

4. Managing Product Listing: Vendors need to publish and manage their product listings.

5. Product Search: For site visitors, provide the ability to search, use filters and view product detail information.

6. Collaborative Order Processing: Provide functionality for reserving products for user and collecting delivery information for you.

7. Reviews and Ratings: Vendor and users should be able to see listing reviews; users should be able to write reviews and rate listings.

8. Notifications: Users should be informed of order status via SMS or email. Users should be able to change notification settings.

9. Multiple Payment Options: Provide advanced payment functionality – payment system, ability to use credit cards, debit cards, PayPal, cash, billing and invoice operations, etc.

10. Platform Integration: How does your platform integrate with POS, Order Management System, including back-office systems, other online shopping channels and/or point solutions?

11. Reporting & Analytics: What reporting and analytics tools does your platform include? Does it provide the ability to analyze cart abandonment, quantify browser searches, tie product purchases to search terms, etc.?

Pricing

1. What is the best revenue model for your online marketplace? Commission, Subscription/Membership or Listing fee.

2. What is your pricing and margin strategy for the marketplace?

3. How do you determine product pricing and how do you optimize for margins?

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Rebook/

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