Kroger, Walgreens in Purchasing Alliance

Combining against Amazon's dip into pharma?

Kroger and Walgreens are in a purchasing alliance and seeking more partners   by George Anderson in Retailwire

The Kroger Co. and Walgreens have formed a new purchasing organization to cut costs and drive innovation.

The new group purchasing organization (GPO), which will be called Retail Procurement Alliance, further expands joint efforts between the supermarket and drugstore powerhouses. In August, the two companies announced plans to expand a pilot program that places Kroger Express store-within-a-store shops inside of Walgreens locations. In a separate test, select Kroger stores are selling a limited offering of Walgreens health and beauty care products, including Boots No7 and Soap & Glory.

Kroger CFO Gary Millerchip said the new GPO “brings together the best of two great organizations to reinvent critical components of our sourcing practices.” 

Alex Gourlay, co-COO for Walgreens Boots Alliance, said the expanded relationship between his company and Kroger will not only “create efficiencies across our supply chains,” it will enhance the ability of the two companies to drive private label innovation and meet the “evolving needs for value and convenience” among consumers.

Kroger and Walgreens are looking for additional partners to join their newly formed purchasing group.

“If another organization thinks they have significant buying in these areas, they could partner with Kroger and Walgreens to save and reduce waste,” Mr. Millerchip told CNBC ..... " 

Google Tracking What You Buy

Have known about this for a long time.  And before Google I knew that Amazon did this, and you could access it. When I found out about this I recall being impressed about being able to see that.  Don't remember of thinking about the privacy issue then.

Google tracks what you buy.  Article in TheVerge describe it:

Google has been tracking nearly everything you buy online — see for yourself with this tool

Google claims the little-known web tool keeps data private   By Nick Statt   @nickstatt  

Google has been quietly keeping track of nearly every single online purchase you’ve ever made, thanks to purchase receipts sent to your personal Gmail account, according to a new report today from CNBC. Even stranger: this information is made available to you via a private web tool that’s been active for an indeterminate amount of time. You can go view it here. .... ' 

Vendor Shortlists

I then further ask, is there a way to update a shortlist automatically?    OR add candidates that should be separately evaluated.

What is a Shortlist Anymore?  by Hank Barnes   In the Gartner blog

As Gartner continues to explore the world of B2B buying, we’ve noticed a phenomenom that is perplexing, compelling, and informative.

For years, people have talked about shortlists. “We’ve built our shortlist of vendors to consider.” “We’re on the shortlist.”   In short (apologies), the shortlist was a signal that buyers were closing in on a decision.

Well, that concept, at least in its simple, traditional form is gone.   In most cases, while the shortlist may exist; it isn’t what it used to be.

Late in 2017, in a survey of people involved in significant B2B technology purchases, we asked if, after creating a shortlist, they ever added vendors to it.  The responses were surprising:

Buying By Voice Hard Sell for Consumers?

Thoughtful piece.   Yes, it does create a nervousness about making a mistake.  But if enough capabilities are included to attest to the credibility of a request, say with a pin number, and clear repetition of the proposed purchase, and a easy way to revoke the purchase are included in the interaction, people do get used to it.    Voice use in business is also increasing, making people yet more comfortable with the idea.

Shopping by Voice a Hard Sell for Consumers  in Strategy-Business

By Denise Dahlhoff, research director of the Baker Retailing Center at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. ... 

AI-based voice communication has finally caught on, seven years after Apple’s Siri launch marked the first major step toward making it part of our daily lives. The recent introduction of Amazon’s Echo Dot Kids Edition was the signal for me that voice technology is here to stay. Children are growing up talking to humanized devices as if it’s the most normal thing. My nieces matter-of-factly interact with Amazon’s Alexa all the time, getting “her” to play songs for their kitchen dance shows, checking math homework solutions, and asking Alexa fun questions. (“Are you a girl? Are you bold?”) When the 7-year-old learned that Alexa can shop, she jokingly said, “Alexa, buy me a TV.”

The idea of actually using Alexa to buy something is an unusual concept to her, which seems to be the case with much of the adult population, too. As of now, voice assistants are mainly used to access news, weather updates, and other information, and to play music and podcasts. But voice shopping hasn’t taken off. It is like a magic carpet with the potential to transport us instantly and conveniently to any shopping destination we can imagine, but part of the carpet is still stuck to the ground. The infrastructure of devices that support voice-assisted shopping has greatly expanded, but software components are underdeveloped. .... " 

Branding and Customer Purchase Behavior

Fairly obvious, but a good overview.  Especially relevant today when its easier than ever to get information about a company that is not directly controlled by the company.  Perceived behavior.

How Branding Impacts Customer Purchase Decisions  in Customerthink

We talk about company brand so much in the world of marketing that the word can start to feel slightly meaningless. Every business has a brand, every business focuses on its brand, every executive knows that keeping the brand intact is a crucial piece of customer loyalty and retention.

But the word has become so common that we rarely talk about how exactly brand identity contributes to when customers decide to make a purchase – and when they decide to avoid a company.

Customers may make a purchase – or not – based on company behavior
Social media has changed the landscape for businesses. When a business makes a mistake – reacting poorly to a customer based on the customer’s marginalization, having a high-profile customer displeased with a product, or simply consistently being a jerk on social media – customers often react swiftly and decisively. .... " 

Product Association Rules Using R

Nice DSC article by Gregory Choi  that relates directly to retail purchasing. How do I mine for associations in purchasing based on past buying data?  Could be used to put together bundles for possible co marketing. This uses the old and overworked  'diapers and beer' example.  Using R as an sample methodology.

Predicting Parent Purchases from Behavior

In Retailwire:   EBay predicts parents' purchases 

EBay Advertising U.K. has launched a predictive targeting tool for identifying and segmenting "parent" shoppers. The launch is part of a larger push to use online behavior to better engage shoppers across life stages. How effective do you think predictive targeting tools based on online shopping behavior will be? ... ' 

Leveraging big data behavior. The comments suggest that there will be high risk in making errors.

Big Data in Recommendation Systems

A good overview in KDNuggets.  Example with Amazon books. When you think of it, much of our purchase interaction online is influenced by such systems.  It is important to make the premise for the reco clear to the user.  Our early pump recommendation expert system was a form of this method, but with much less data, and a clear reason for selection.  Also a way to map markets of need.  Look also at Procurement systems.

Google on the Purchase Journey

Interesting thoughts and related statistics.   " ... I-Want-to-Buy Moments: How Mobile Has Reshaped the Purchase Journey ... For today's constantly connected consumers, shopping never sleeps. Whether making an everyday purchase or researching a big-ticket item, we reflexively turn to mobile. These I-want-to-buy moments are important for consumers, and they're critical for brands. Are you winning these micro-moments?  ... "  

Brain Marketing

In the HBR:  Using the activity of the brain to understand purchasing and marketing decisions.   We called this neuromarketing, but that term is never used in the article.   " ... Brain Marketing: Is the Product Worth the Price?  Are consumers more likely to buy if they see the price before the product, or vice versa? Uma Karmarkar and colleagues scan the brains of shoppers to find out. ... " .  

The approaches described uses fMRI, while today most experimentation by retailers and manufacturers use very different electroencephalogram methods.

" ... By the time you decided to buy a product, you knew both what you were buying and how much it cost. But was your decision affected by whether you saw the price or the product first? That's the question at the heart of new experimental research that uses neuroscience tools to shed light on how our brains make purchasing decisions. ... " 

Packaging Drives Purchases

From Kraft:  Fairly obvious, packaging should act a signboard that will stop customers in their tracks.  A few years ago we looked at approaches like electro luminescence, but never applied them directly.   " ... "Advertising increases awareness, but it doesn't make consumers buy. The drive to purchase happens in the store, which is why packaging is so important," said Peter Borowski, head of design for Kraft Foods. In a panel discussion earlier this week at the Packaging Conference, Borowski said 72% of purchasing decisions are made while the consumer is in the store and emphasized the importance of collaboration between packaging designers and marketers

 ... " 

Buyers Journey as a Funnel

A view I had not head of, but intriguing: " ... Does a Buyer’s Journey Take Shape as a Funnel? ... Posted by Chris Spears on Nov 14, 2013 in Agency, Content, Marketing  ...  " .  Perhaps a useful metaphor.

Vinimaya Virtual Supplier Network

I have now had a couple of in-depth conversations with the local company Vinimaya. Very impressive and particularly simple and cost effective solutions to company procurement problems. Their site contains a number of current customer and supplier case studies

"The Vinimaya AdvantageThe patent-pending SmartSearch™ helps companies create "virtual Internet supplier networks", solving e-Procurement’s three biggest problems:

1.User Adoption: Access all catalogs, web or stored, from a single, consumer-like user interface!

2.Supplier Adoption: Any punchout site, web site catalog, or stored catalog is “Vinimaya ready” today.

3.Costs: Buying organizations no longer have to manage the catalog content to ensure price compliance ... "

Shopper Path to Purchase

ARF Chief Research Officer Joel Rubinson posts about shopper path to purchase:

' ... Understanding “Path to Purchase” will change marketing and media priorities. In most cases, it is likely to increase the budget for search, comparison shopping, and particularly in-store shopper marketing vs. using a media habits approach because those places don’t have a big share of media time but they are where the “lean-forward” action is. Shopper insights research shows that, for many products, 50% or more of purchases and brand choices are decided on right in the store. For such products, to put it in terms that media planners can relate to, shopper marketing is like recency on steroids ... '.

Also be sure to see the first comment on the post, where Dave Katz of ClientOne describes the solution that he has developed for exactly this kind of problem. Have pointed to this approach here before, it is worth another look.