Being 'Everywhere' – From Gadgets to Customer Relationships

About a decade ago, major device manufacturers debuted voice-activated digital assistants as a new internet-of-things (IoT) approach for taking a deeper step into consumers’ environments. The promise was compelling: households controlled and supplied by voice control, starting with simple free commands, evolving ultimately to new business platforms for e-commerce.  Companies that delivered almost everything could also be “everywhere” – fully embedded in the lives of a household.   

Ten years later, the expansive vision of voice-controlled households is only partly here.  You may trust your new “digital assistant” to turn on your lights or open your garage door, but will you trust her to order your groceries or schedule your doctor’s appointment? With the path to monetized services unclear, the tech giants are starting to waver. A few have recently announced divisional resets as they reconsider their business models¹. It would seem there is a bigger hill to climb in becoming essential in our daily lives.  Not only does our electronic “digital assistant” need to be competent, but she also needs to be trustworthy. That can be a much harder position to gain and a position that needs to be earned over a long period of time. 

Who do we know that has been building that trust, often over generations and over hundreds of years? While the device manufacturers regroup on their “everywhere” strategies, traditional grocers, with their warm, friendly, satisfying brands, may actually have the upper hand when it comes to winning a place in our digital “family.”

At Deloitte, we have coined this coming time of digital expertise enhancing our lives and our capabilities as the “age of with.”  In the best cases, we are working “with” technology, such as generative AI, to enhance human capabilities and human experiences, not replace them. 

Against this backdrop, grocers are rapidly transforming. They’ve already become omnichannel in an impressively compressed time frame. Today, almost all grocers have online sales (91%) and more than half (55%) provide home delivery of online orders².  Digital gadgets opened the latest chapter of a fully connected household, but in many ways, the grocery channel could be best positioned as its newest member.  Consider the following: 

• Community goodwill.  Grocers accumulated deep relationship value through their long-standing service to communities, local ownership and staffing.  In a world of pervasive connective technology infrastructure, grocers can extend this relationship capital to become more than pillars of the community but also members of the household. 
• Physical stores in real life. Despite the growth of delivery, the in-person and sensory character of the store is the customer experience.  Stores are where grocers connect with their customers – a fact that some digital-first competitors are steadily realizing.  Grocery is multimodal, and traditional grocers may have a significant head start with extensive store footprints, staffing and expertise. 
• More intimacy creates deeper knowledge.  Grocers’ diversified customer touchpoints can create an advantage in understanding customer needs, trends and preferences. In a time where information access can create a competitive advantage, grocers are in an enviable position to inform the design and delivery of new kinds of services. 
• Industry cooperation and stewardship. Lastly, the grocery industry’s long-standing reputation for service and ethics helps improve its posture as a good steward of customer information and digital conduct. Grocers will certainly play a larger role in e-commerce in the future. Collectively, the grocery industry’s voice can influence the policy and standards protecting the interests of both consumers and businesses. 

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  ¹ _{"Amazon’s big dreams for Alexa fall short" | Ars Technica}
  ² _{PowerPoint Presentation (fmi.org)}