Turn grocery industry disruption into a competitive advantage

New customer behaviors and technologies are disrupting the grocery industry

The grocery and convenience store environment is transforming, both on the floor and behind the scenes. Inflation is forcing shoppers to look for lower prices and greater value. Always-connected smartphones have created the expectation that consumers can instantly find deals on the products they care about. In the back of the house, grocers are turning to AI to automate tasks like pricing and stocking, as well as to improve fraud detection and loss prevention. Staying competitive today means keeping everything connected, and that requires modern networking and IT infrastructure.

59% of shoppers increased their use of digital coupons in 2024.¹

Digital is driving grocery shopping, with consumers using digital coupons, QR codes, price comparison apps and loyalty programs to find deals. Younger generations in particular, including Gen Z and millennials, are prioritizing convenience, personalization and digital experiences, which means grocers need more insights about their preferences so they can cater to them. More consumers are choosing to shop online: Digital grocery sales rose more than 4% in 2024.² When they’re in the store, shoppers want faster checkouts and smooth point-of-sale (POS) performance.

Biggest adopters of self-checkout:³
Gen Z: 63%
Millennials: 45%

52% of grocery store consumers say they value convenience now more than they did in the past.⁴

As labor costs, operational complexity and food inflation squeeze margins, grocers are looking for technology to improve operations and the shopper experience. While maintaining legacy IT and POS systems, grocers are also exploring new use cases that leverage AI to deliver targeted promotions, improve checkout speed and automate manual tasks. Supercenter innovators are leading in this race, with regional and smaller grocers striving to catch up.

77.8M: The number of U.S. households that bought groceries online in November 2024, the highest since April 2020.⁵

More connection points to the cloud, POS systems and Internet of Things (IoT) devices means grocers must manage a larger attack surface. Data breaches and cloud misconfigurations are growing threats, while in-store loss and theft prevention remain crucial. At the same time, grocers are constrained by limited IT resources. Many stores lack the extensive in-house IT teams needed to stay updated on the latest tools, technologies and threats. With a fragmented vendor environment that creates complexity and not enough resources to go around, true innovation can be overlooked in favor of reactive problem-solving.

Creating personalized experiences and efficient operations

When it comes to reaching shoppers, 55% of consumers feel valued when they receive rewards, and 46% are interested in receiving personalized offers through in-store experiences.⁶

Where retailers plan to invest:⁷
Loyalty programs 35%
Personalized coupons and discounts 35%
Programmatic marketing 34%
Interactive in-store experiences

To stay competitive, grocers must reimagine the store. The POS and WiFi are good places to start, but grocers can gain an advantage by thinking beyond individual systems. Each store must be a connected, intelligent hub — capturing insights, personalizing services and optimizing operations. To go a step further, stores must also be connected with each other, sharing cloud-based data and applications to better coordinate promotions, inventory and insights.

93% of shoppers say the relevancy of digital offers influences their purchase decision.⁸

Shift from capex to opex for greater agility

Hardware-heavy investments require grocery organizations to absorb large upfront expenses and secure in-house expertise to implement and maintain systems. In contrast, managed services and “as a service” models have lower upfront costs, faster deployments and simplified operations. A managed services provider can offer predictable monthly or annual costs and handle maintenance, reducing the risk of downtime. Service models also scale up or down based on the grocer’s needs, making it easier to add capabilities to new or existing locations.

Prioritize cybersecurity as a foundational requirement

Grocery stores handle large amounts of customer data, including personal and financial information. Protecting this data is critical to maintaining a good brand reputation, complying with data privacy regulations and keeping stores up and running. Grocers must integrate a software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) with layered security. This approach can include solutions for advanced firewall, identity management, unified threat management (UTM), cloud access security brokers (CASBs) and secure access service edge (SASE). It’s also critical that grocery organizations implement distributed denial of service (DDoS) safeguards and control access at the perimeter and cloud level to protect shopper and transactional data.

28% of consumers used digital wallets for payment in stores in 2024.⁹

Outsource infrastructure management to refocus internal teams

When your internal IT staff is free to focus on consumer-facing innovation, you can launch new apps, loyalty programs and AI-powered personalization strategies that drive sales. Delegate network design, monitoring, patching and vendor management to a trusted managed services partner to get the assurance of expertise and the freedom to move forward with other initiatives. Rewards can also include greater operational efficiency, speed and flexibility — valuable benefits in an industry marked by fierce competition and tight margins.

Enterprise-grade solutions for network modernization

The convenient, personalized, seamless grocery shopping experience your customers expect is powered by reliable networks, fast internet connectivity, smart cameras and sensors, a secure cloud infrastructure and responsive technical support. As you develop a modernization strategy to deliver on those customer expectations, ensure your technology blueprint includes the necessary ingredients.

Managed SD-WAN with integrated security

Competitive grocery brands require a complete, agile and virtualized WAN that gives them enhanced visibility and control. Managed SD-WAN enables reliable, high-speed and secure connections across distributed sites, making it ideal for grocery chains with multiple locations. The solution enables you to support the POS systems, cloud applications and AI platforms your business increasingly relies on — all without downtime or latency. In addition, the built-in user-level security and application-layer control means data and systems are better protected, helping you guard against the cost of breaches and service interruptions.

High-performance internet and wireless connectivity

Uptime is critical for POS systems, self-checkout and digital signage. High-performance internet connectivity supports smart carts, scan and go mobile checkout and IoT sensors, such as those devoted to environmental monitoring or inventory tracking. Without reliable connectivity, transactions can slow or fail, disrupting customer service and sales. Omnichannel shopping experiences are built on solid connectivity, with online ordering, curbside pickup and delivery services requiring real-time updates and integration across digital platforms. Connectivity is also central to employee efficiency as cloud-based collaboration and training tools require fast, uninterrupted access. For peace of mind, wireless failover automatically switches to a backup connection if needed to minimize downtime and ensure business continuity.

1.5x: The additional amount omnichannel shoppers spend each month compared to single-channel shoppers.¹⁰

AI-powered POS and customer engagement systems

Grocers are turning POS and other customer engagement systems into data powerhouses. Teams can perform real-time analytics on purchasing behavior, personalize digital promotions at checkout based on past purchases and gamify loyalty programs. These systems can also aid in fraud detection by identifying non-scanned items at self-checkout and integrating with mobile apps to achieve frictionless checkout and digital receipts. AI-powered solutions can enable grocers to dynamically update pricing and promotions in real time, and forecasting tools can use AI insights to optimize stock levels and reduce waste by analyzing sales patterns, spoilage rates, vendor lead times and seasonal demand to guide accurate ordering.

Grocery executives optimistic about the financial benefits of generative AI (GenAI):¹²
2023: 40%
2024: 80%

In-store IoT ecosystem

Connected systems and sensors can help grocery staff work smarter. These include smart cameras for loss prevention, shelf sensors and e-labels for real-time price and inventory updates, self-service kiosks and automated checkout. Environmental monitoring can alert grocers to issues related to temperature changes, humidity, water leaks, air quality and energy use while helping control electricity costs.

Unified communications and collaboration tools

Empower your staff within and across locations with tools that streamline internal collaboration and strengthen customer service. Modern, mobile-ready systems can enhance employee performance, productivity and customer satisfaction by bringing together calling, messaging and video conferencing into one comprehensive platform. Look for tools that complement your CRM, email and customer support systems and work with your existing business applications.

65% of grocery executives say they’re increasing investments in generative AI.¹³

Cloud and edge computing integration

Grocers need speed, scalability and reliability across operations, underscoring the importance of integrating cloud and edge computing. Multi-cloud WAN creates a unified network infrastructure that lets you work efficiently across all your public and private cloud services. By maintaining a consistent deployment experience across edge and core environments, you can simplify operations and adopt new use cases faster. Integration enables quicker responses for demands such as fraud detection, shelf monitoring and dynamic pricing adjustments. Cloud platforms allow grocers to scale IT resources across multiple stores with ease. Finally, combining cloud and edge computing ensures operations continue even if connectivity to the cloud is lost.

Build resilient, future-ready grocery stores with Spectrum Business®

The time to modernize is now. As consumer technology evolves, shoppers will expect fast, user-friendly digital experiences wherever they shop. Inflation will continue to put pressure on even your most loyal customers to shop around for the best value. An investment in connectivity is about more than infrastructure. It’s a competitive advantage that gives you a chance to delight customers with value-added experiences that cement loyalty.

With Spectrum Business, you can deliver personalized customer experiences across all your stores. Our broad portfolio of enterprise-grade products and managed services delivers the connectivity and security that position you for the future — all backed by industry-leading service-level agreements and 100% U.S.-based support, available 24/7.

Learn more

1. “State of Digital Grocery Performance Scorecard: May 2024,” Grocery Doppio, June 10, 2024.
2. Neha Ghai, “How 7 Key Trends in 2024 Drove a 4% Uptick in Digital Grocery Sales,” Grocery Doppio, December 11, 2024.
3. “77% of Shoppers Choose Self-Checkout for Faster Service, According to New Consumer Survey from NCR Voyix,” NCR Voyix, January 10, 2025.
4. “Deloitte: Grocery Shoppers Crave Convenience and Fresh,” Deloitte, September 10, 2024.
5. “US eGrocery Sales Trends with Brick Meets Click – November 2024 Insights,” Mercatus, 2024.
6. “The RRD CPG + Grocery Consumer Report: Q4 2024,” RRD, 2024.
7. Ibid.
8. Timothy Inklebarger, “Shoppers to Grocers: Make Digital Ads Relevant,” Supermarket News, February 12, 2024.
9. Roshan Varadarajan, Felicia Tan, Abhinav Sah et. al, “State of Consumer Digital Payments in 2024,” McKinsey & Company, October 25, 2024.
10. “How 7 Key Trends in 2024 Drove a 4% Uptick in Digital Grocery Sales.”
11. “Deloitte: Grocery Shoppers Crave Convenience and Fresh.”
12. Ibid.