Grocery Doppio's January 2024 Digital Grocery Performance Scorecard reveals grocer and shopper sentiment on retail media deployment, alongside the latest insights from grocery industry sales data.

Incisiv, a next-generation industry insights firm that helps retailers and brands navigate digital disruption, and Wynshop, the leading provider of digital commerce and fulfillment solutions for grocers and other local store-based retailers, today revealed the findings from the State of Digital Grocery Performance Scorecard for January 2024.

This month, Grocery Doppio asked grocers and shoppers for their opinions about retail media networks. The results delivered a clear message that shoppers are willing to click on ads, but only if they are relevant:

• Grocers are optimistic about retail media networks: They predict an average 13% rise in revenue in 2024.

• Shoppers welcome ads, if they are relevant: 93% say that relevancy of offers influences their purchase decision; 73% report having clicked on an ad when they thought it was relevant; 84% responded to limited-time-only deals; But 91% said they already see too many ads online.

• AI is a key enabler of retail media success: 82% of grocers believe that AI can improve shopper targeting and 87% think it can improve pricing and inventory management, but less than 7% are currently utilizing AI for that purpose.

The monthly State of Digital Grocery Performance Scorecards are one of many resources available on the Grocery Doppio website. The latest report was built around aggregated data analysis of 2.4 million shopper orders and survey results from more than 42,000 shoppers and 4,000 U.S. grocery executives from January 2022 to the present.

More key findings from the January 2024 Performance Scorecard include:

• Overall grocer sales continued to grow, while digital remained flat.
  • There was $76.5 billion in grocery sales in January 2024, a 4.7% YOY increase from January 2023.
  • 13.8% of all January 2024 grocery sales were digital ($10.6B), down 1% from January 2023.

• Digital basket size and items/basket were both up dramatically.
  • Average digital grocery basket value in January 2024 was $176.1, an 11% increase over January 2023.
  • Items/basket also rose, with a January 2024 basket containing three items more than in January 2023.

• Third party sales and fulfillment preferences have settled in.
  • After falling from over 30% of digital grocery sales in January 2022 to a low of under 15% in December 2023, third-party share of digital grocery leveled out at 14.9% in January 2024.
  • Pickup and delivery methods of fulfillment continued to joust for parity, with delivery reclaiming a 51% share to pickup's 49% in January 2024, as compared to the reverse scenario in December 2023.

"Retail media should be a major focus for grocers in 2024," said Gaurav Pant, Chief Insights Officer of both Incisiv and Grocery Doppio. "Now that grocers have succeeded in staking out their own claims in the digital grocery frontier, they will double down on initiatives that help them maintain customer loyalty and improve profitability."

"AI is the real story here," added Charlie Kaplan, Chief Revenue Officer at Wynshop. "Shoppers respond positively to online grocery ads, but only if they are timely and personally relevant. Grocers' ability to finely target offers to the preferences of individual shoppers using AI will be the key to success in the retail media game this year."

Grocery Doppio is a free, independent source of grocery insights and data designed to help grocers jumpstart, accelerate, and sustain digital growth. Each month, Grocery Doppio brings together rich, research-driven grocery content, fact-based observations, inspiring perspectives, and deep performance benchmarks that identify improvement opportunities for grocery retailers. 

Wittman brings decades of experience growing enterprise technology brands to drive Object First’s next phase of growth amid increasing demand for ransomware-proof immutability

Object First, the provider of Ootbi (Out-of-the-Box-Immutability), the ransomware-proof backup storage appliance purpose-built for Veeam®, today announced the appointment of Andrew Wittman as its Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). A growth marketing expert with deep expertise in the enterprise technology industry, Wittman complements the expanding Object First organization and will help the leadership team propel the company to its next level of growth. 

"Selecting a CMO is not just about finding someone with marketing expertise; it's about identifying a visionary leader who can strategically elevate our brand, inspire creativity, and drive impactful connections with our customers and partners,” said David Bennett, CEO, Object First. “We are delighted to welcome Andrew to our leadership team as he embodies all of that and more. I’m confident his contributions will make a positive impact on the next phase of our company.”

Wittman brings 25 years of experience across the cybersecurity, backup and disaster recovery, and infrastructure management spaces. Throughout his career, he has created demand, accelerated growth, and built brand awareness at start-ups, Fortune 100 enterprises, and agencies. In particular, he has focused on building successful channel organizations that benefit customers and partners alike. Prior to joining Object First, Wittman served as CMO at Axcient, Webroot, Okta, and CA Technologies. He also held various leadership marketing roles with Wily Technology, Citigate Cunningham, ePropose, and FICO. He is a graduate of Columbia University.

“Object First delivers immediate value to partners and customers, ransomware-proofing backup storage with a solution that is secure, simple and powerful. As the risk of ransomware continues to rise and with backups being a primary target, the demand for a solution like Ootbi that offers real resiliency without requiring security expertise is huge,” said Wittman. “I look forward to working with the stellar Object First team and our rapidly growing network of partners to make every Veeam customer’s backup data more secure.”

Today, NiftyKit, the renowned no-code NFT platform, announced its integration with Base, the Ethereum L2 incubated by Coinbase. NiftyKit makes it easy to create and sell NFTs with no-code smart contracts. This integration with Base not only amplifies the creative potential for artists by providing a more scalable and efficient blockchain platform, but also enhances the experience for creators and collectors through improved transaction speeds and reduced costs, fostering a more vibrant and accessible NFT creation tool. It empowers creators and makes NFT technology more accessible than ever, which will ultimately help bring NFTs into the mainstream.

Introducing 'Base Diamonds' NFT

To commemorate this integration, NiftyKit proudly unveils the 'Base Diamonds' NFT. This unique NFT features the mesmerizing artwork of Sarah Script, a trailblazer in blending traditional calligraphy with digital art. Sarah Script, celebrated for her work with prestigious clients like Goop and Tiffany & Co., and known for her book "Copperplate Calligraphy from A to Z," has also been honored as CoinDesk's Most Influential Artist. The 'Base Diamonds' NFT embodies the spirit of onchain innovation and the collaborative spirit of the creator community.

Expanding Opportunities for Builders and Creators with Base Integration

NiftyKit's Base integration helps extend NFT innovation beyond artists to encompass innovators, builders, and creators of all kinds. This collaboration combines Base's scalable blockchain with NiftyKit's intuitive tools, offering an accessible, efficient path to digital asset creation and management. At the heart of this integration lies the Diamond Smart Contracts on Base, which simplify technical challenges and empower creators to evolve their digital assets with ease and flexibility, even without a technical background. Low cost and fast onchain transactions help open doors to a more diverse, inclusive, and creative digital future.

Base's affordability empowers innovators to invest more in their creative endeavors and less in technical complexities. NiftyKit's Diamond Smart Contracts provide the agility and adaptability needed to stay at the forefront of innovation and imagination. It simplifies the process and helps creators stay on top of their collections' evolution.

"We believe that this integration with Base will be a game-changer, empowering creators and brands alike with accessible and affordable experiences," said Dan Carr, Co-founder and CEO of NiftyKit. "Our mission revolves around enabling creators and brands to launch distinctive Web3 experiences effortlessly. We are thrilled to continue our journey of innovation by enabling no-code smart contracts for NFTs on the Base platform."

Jesse Pollak, Creator of Base, said, "We're excited to welcome NiftyKit to Base, and to enable creators to more easily launch their projects using NiftyKit contracts."

2024 Future Digital Awards for Telco Innovation recognise how VodafoneZiggo revolutionised customer engagement using BlueConic

Working with market-leading customer data platform (CDP) BlueConic, Dutch telecommunications company VodafoneZiggo has revolutionised its customer engagement strategies, resulting in a 17.6% increase in website interactions and a 4.53% reduction in churn. The collaboration has earned both companies a Platinum award for Best Customer Data Platform Solution in Juniper Research’s Future Digital Awards for Telco Innovation. 

Presented by Juniper Research, the awards recognize the most innovative and disruptive telecommunications solutions operating across numerous areas. VodafoneZiggo has already won several awards for its dedication to data-driven decision-making and experimentation but knew it needed to unify its first-party customer data across numerous disparate systems and sources in order to boost engagement, deliver better customer experiences, and ultimately drive customer acquisition and retention. While some CDPs mostly focus on data unification and others tout personalization offerings, VodafoneZiggo is able to do both with BlueConic.

Leveraging the platform to understand customer preferences, easily segment their audiences, and target customers and households across channels with real-time data, VodafoneZiggo was able to transform its customer engagement strategy in several key areas:

• Product recommendations: Using BlueConic, the conversion rate optimization (CRO) team can identify which operating system (OS) a customer is using while browsing their website. Knowing customers are likely to purchase the same type of phone again, they can personalize the shopping experience by only showing them phones with the same OS. For customers using a different OS, product recommendations dynamically update to show recently browsed devices. Within the first six months, this strategy drove a 3.5% increase in clickthrough for returning mobile visitors. On the B2B side of the business, they saw a 2.26% increase on product detail page visits and a 2.95% increase in add-to-carts. For B2C, there was a 17.6% increase in interactions for both new and returning visitors.
• Targeting and personalization: VodafoneZiggo also leverages BlueConic to automatically send segments into custom audiences in Facebook – eliminating the need for manual uploads from their CRM system. Because segments update in real-time, ads are automatically suppressed for customers who have already purchased a new phone or renewed a subscription, thereby optimising their targeting efforts while increasing their return on ad spend (ROAS).
• Churn prevention: By connecting churn probability scores from their Advanced Analytics department to BlueConic profiles, VodafoneZiggo can automatically route at-risk customers to chat with customer support specialists online. This strategy resulted in a 4.53% reduction in churn, a 7.14% increase in chats, and decreased web-to-call by 7.14%.

“While we’re no stranger to winning awards, it’s even more rewarding when we can share that recognition with our customers to celebrate their success,” said Ifoma Smart, VP of Global Customer Success at BlueConic. “When it comes to innovation, technology is just one part of the puzzle. You also need strong processes and a skilled and talented team – attributes VodafoneZiggo has in abundance. They quickly discovered BlueConic not only provides a better way to access and utilize first-party data to drive customer engagement but also offers the flexibility to grow with their business. We’re delighted their success with our customer data platform has been recognized by the esteemed analysts at Juniper Research.”

TikTok emerges as the top marketing platform for SMBs, offering superior ROI and audience interaction, finds Capterra’s TikTok Marketing Survey.

TikTok has surged past its competitors, becoming the premier platform for small to midsize businesses (SMBs) aiming for high engagement and a robust return on investment. According to Capterra’s TikTok Marketing Survey, 71% of small businesses, including retailers and restaurants, will increase their TikTok marketing spend next year—up from 52% last year. 

The survey underscores a pivotal shift in digital marketing, highlighting TikTok’s effectiveness in engaging audiences, especially among Gen Z and Gen Alpha consumers. A staggering 96% of SMBs who market themselves on TikTok report the most engagement on TikTok compared to Meta platforms. The average small business on TikTok maintains a follower count between 10,000 to 25,000 with posts receiving an average of 1,000 to 10,000 views, illustrating the platform’s expansive reach. Additionally, 65% of SMBs post content daily, a testament to TikTok’s popularity.

In 2024, TikTok’s user-centric, diverse content and authentic engagement opportunities are prompting businesses to rethink their marketing budgets. Most SMBs plan to increase their TikTok marketing spend while around one-third will concurrently reduce their investment in Facebook (37%) and Instagram (32%). This strategic shift comes as businesses recognize the unique appeal of TikTok’s content, which fosters a blend of entertainment and utility unseen on other platforms. Moreover, this engagement is not just superficial; over half of SMBs using TikTok’s paid ads report a positive ROI.

The platform’s role in supporting businesses isn't limited to organic content. The introduction of TikTok’s advertising suite, especially its popular Smart Targeting feature, changes the game by enabling SMBs to achieve rapid ROI, often within just five months. The efficiency of TikTok’s ad tools is so compelling that 85% of successful SMBs are gearing up to increase their TikTok advertising spend in 2024.

However, building a TikTok presence isn’t without its challenges. As TikTok expands into eCommerce with TikTok Shop, SMBs face logistical hurdles, including inventory management and fulfillment complexities. Around 45% of businesses have found that deriving ROI from TikTok Shop is challenging, signaling a need for strategic adoption.

“SMB performance on TikTok is strong. Most are seeing a positive return on ad spend, rising sales attributable to TikTok, and engagement above and beyond what they receive on any other social media app, including Instagram and Facebook,” says Molly Burke, senior retail analyst at Capterra. “However, as TikTok’s eCommerce marketplace evolves, businesses must focus on creating content that is entertaining and helpful to avoid adding to users’ growing ad fatigue.”

TikTok is set to dominate social media in 2024, and it’s clear that SMBs have much to gain from this platform. While challenges in eCommerce persist, the overall benefits of TikTok present a way for businesses to thrive through engaging content and effective advertising strategies.

Today, DOmedia and Placer.ai launched PeopleToMySpot.com, a website designed to help local marketers and business owners understand and impact foot-traffic patterns near brick-and-mortar locations.

BeyondID, a leading managed identity solutions provider, today announced its successful completion of its System and Organization Controls 2 Type II (SOC 2 Type II) examination. This certification highlights BeyondID's commitment to ensuring the security and privacy of its users' data.

The company also announced that its platform is Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliant and can provide a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) to customers that ensures the proper handling of protected health information.

The independent examination, conducted by leading cybersecurity assessment firm A-LIGN https://www.a-lign.com/validates that BeyondID's security practices and controls meet the Trust Services Principles and Criteria for security, availability, and privacy over an extended period of time. 

"Every day, our certified identity professionals and Security Operations Center help customers identify threats to their environment and data, and protecting them is our top priority," said  Sasi Kelam, co-founder and CTO at BeyondID. "We are also proud to achieve HIPAA compliance, ensuring that BeyondID can handle sensitive healthcare data securely. This combination of SOC 2 and HIPAA compliance assures our customers that we take security as seriously as they do." 

In addition to performing a SOC 2/HIPAA audit on an annual basis, BeyondID will make the report available to current or potential customers upon execution of a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). 

Integration Enables Advertisers, Agencies, and Publishers to Navigate the Post-Cookie Era While Prioritizing User Privacy and Audience Effectiveness 

Optable, a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) data management & collaboration platform designed for the advertising ecosystem, announced today the commencement of its Early Access Program for its Privacy Sandbox activation capabilities. This marks an unprecedented step for a company synonymous with data collaboration, as it boldly integrates with the new Google API, becoming the go-to "easy button" for privacy-safe advertising.

"At Optable, our mission to enable growth through privacy-safe advertising products has led us to extend our data management and collaboration capabilities by deeply integrating with the Google Privacy Sandbox," said Bosko Milekic, Chief Product Officer and Co-founder, Optable. "Our customers require solutions that empower them to leverage both authenticated and anonymous user data in innovative, privacy-centric ways for audience-based planning, activation, and measurement. This integration fundamentally strengthens our platform and will redefine what people expect to get out of data management and collaboration platforms in the era of privacy."

The Optable Early Access Program empowers advertisers and agencies to construct and target audiences while preserving user privacy. This suite also facilitates the measurement of advertising effectiveness within a privacy-centric framework. Further, it offers publisher networks the ability to develop and launch privacy-safe advertising products, engaging user cohorts across owned, operated, and third-party media.

Seamlessly integrated with Optable's robust data management solution, Optable DMP, and its collaborative data clean room suite, Optable Collaborate, this development benefits key industry stakeholders:

• Publishers: Empowers publishers by enabling them to regain control over audience data, enable emerging revenue streams, expand their reach across various media, prioritize user privacy, and optimize audience activation and measurement within a privacy-centric environment.
• Marketers: Ensures continued audience reach, offering privacy-centric solutions, innovative measurement tools, opportunities for early adaptation, and access to new, privacy-safe approaches in audience engagement and campaign optimization.

"We're encouraged by the industry's continued efforts to test innovative solutions using the building blocks provided by the Privacy Sandbox," said Victor Wong, Senior Director of Product Management, Privacy Sandbox, Google. "As we enter 2024, we look forward to working with all parts of the industry as more companies shift towards privacy-centric advertising solutions."