17 grocery shopping experiences of the future
The Benchmark Series
This post is part of the Benchmark Series, listing the most innovative challenger companies in different traditional markets. These benchmarks are part of the Tuesday in the Design Sprints we do for our enterprise clients.
Food technology is growing by the day in a number of options, breadth of utility, and customer appreciation. If grocery retailers want to remain competitive, adopting these technologies could be key to establishing and maintaining an edge. These 17 companies are changing the industry as we know it.
Aisle411, USA
Aisle411 makes shopping in stores easier. It allows shoppers to map products, offers and lists by aisle location. When it comes to retailers, Aisle411 offers a mobile in-store location services platform that allows them to reach shoppers at the shelf, with context and location relevant information that enhances the shopper experience.
Alfred, USA
Alfred is the trusted operating system for your home. Powered by technology and exceptional service. They’re the smart way to take care of weekly errands without actually doing them yourself. It pairs busy individuals with organized, knowledgeable, intuitive people who handle all of life’s necessities: from groceries and dry cleaning, to tailoring and sending packages.
Amazon Dash Buttons, USA
At first, everyone thought they were an April Fool’s joke. But Amazon Dash buttons are real. The buttons are physical hardware devices that you set up to be associated with a particular SKU on Amazon, allowing you to easily reorder common household products, like paper towels, detergent, toilet paper, diapers, personal care items, as well as groceries and pet supplies.
Amazon Go, USA
Amazon Go is a new kind of store with no checkout required. Amazon created the world’s most advanced shopping technology so you never have to wait in line. With their Just Walk Out Shopping experience, simply use the Amazon Go app to enter the store, take the products you want, and go! In this Apple Store like experience, there are no lines and no checkout.
Blue Apron, USA
Blue Apron is a subscription service that makes weekly deliveries of all the food you need to make its recipes. The recipes on the platform are interactive and include instructions, videos and technique tips.
CartFresh, USA
CartFresh is a white-label online grocery SaaS platform. Their solution is designed for retailers to grow their customer base through an elegant web store and mobile app that fully reflect the values of their brand. The cloud-based platform is fully equipped with all e‑commerce fulfillment and delivery options.
Delivery.com, USA
Delivery.com lets people order online from their favorite local businesses and the ones they’ve yet to discover. With the best restaurants, wine and spirits shops, grocery stores, and laundry and dry cleaning providers, they’re working hard to have every corner of the neighborhood covered.
Food Assembly, France
Food Assembly (La Ruche qui dit Oui) aims to empower customers to support their local economy by sourcing local goods. Members can search and order locally produced foods and attend “assemblies” where producers and customers gather to exchange orders.
Foodini, Spain
Foodini is a 3D food printer. A new generation kitchen appliance that combines technology, food, art and design. It helps create savory or sweet cuisine. The food is real food, made from fresh ingredients prepared before printing.
Google Express, USA
Google Express is an online marketplace that connects shoppers with popular stores. You can get fast delivery of household items, apparel, electronics, pantry staples such as bread and cereal, and more.
Instacart, USA
Instacart is a San Francisco-based service, but is active in many cities across the United States. Customers can order through an app and the company promises grocery delivery from local stores like Whole Foods Market, Costco, Target and Petco in under an hour.
Movebutter, USA
Movebutter is the modern supermarket. Movebutter has distilled an entire week of groceries into one box. With The Founder’s Box, they’ve taken a bold first step in making the food value chain more affordable and ethical.
Original Unverpackt, Germany
Shrink-wrapped shallots and polystyrene-packed peppers are a thing of the past at Original Unverpackt, a German concept store selling groceries without the packaging
Picnic, The Netherlands
Picnic offers free delivery and has ambitious expansion plans. Picnic’s deliveries are made by ‘runners’ driving small electric delivery vans which have set routes in each area of a town it serves.
PlateJoy, USA
PlateJoy’s approach to food delivery offers a personalized, health-focused menu from a variety of diet-plans. They use over 50 different data points to tailor each meal plan to your needs, goals, and lifestyle. It aims to help subscribers create a healthy eating plan and provide the ingredients and recipes they need to stick to it.
Selfycart, USA
Selfycart is the fastest, easiest, and most secure way to checkout in retail stores. They are working towards a world where there are no lines, and no wait, to checkout. Simply, scan, pay, and go.
Thrive Market, USA
Thrive Market is an online retailer offering thousands of the best-selling healthy, natural products from your favorite brands at wholesale prices. For every paying member, a membership is given to a low-income American family.
Go Weekly is the lightweight strategic partner for Design Sprints. We translate trends and ideas into a digital prototype in one week. Working together with companies to make a leap forward in their industry with new products that can match or exceed the benchmarks in this series. Looking to think ahead with us? Get in touch
