Tech

Clerk gets new funding to improve the in-store grocery shopping experience – TechCrunch


Much of the grocery focus of the past three years has revolved around online adoption, but as long as 90% of grocery sales in the United States still take place in stores, companies like Sales agent wanted to bring some digitization to the traditional grocery store experience.

CEO Marlow Nickell founded Austin-based Clerk in 2016, and while he sees Amazon and Walmart working hard on marketing and selling products, he sees demand from the rest. there is no possibility of innovation there.

The company created a digital ad network called Grocery TV and provide screens, initially in the checkout aisle, for brands and retailers to leverage to improve the shopping experience.

Clerk received $5 million in Series A funding two years ago, led by Silverton Partners, and since then, has grown the size of its network by 350%, from 750 stores to 2,700 stores today. Nickell told TechCrunch next month the company is planning its biggest install ever that will push it to more than 3,000.

The company is present in all 50 states and has more than 14,000 stores at retailers like ShopRite, Bashas’ and Cub Foods. It has partnerships with programmatic networks, including The Trade Desk and Yahoo DSP, to help dealers and brands like Chase and Anheuser-Busch easily reach an audience of more than 30 million grocery shoppers than.

In addition, the company launched a SaaS sales product that uses machine learning to ensure products are always in stock and placed on shelves correctly. One of its partnerships is with Dotdash Meredithannounced in 2021, uses Clerk’s technology to curate its publications in more than 15,000 stores each quarter.

Salesperson digital displays are not a new concept, in fact there have been several companies over the past decade or so that have introduced digital signs into grocery aisles, primarily for in-store advertising. These include NoviSign, ScreenCloud, Cooling screen, EasyScreen and In-store Streaming Network. You may also remember Premier Retail Networks as one of the pioneers in this area with the Checkout TV product available in Walmart stores in the US.

Nickell notes that technology costs and a focus on engineering – which are his cornerstones – are needed to reduce technology costs.

“We’ve seen companies raise prices more, but still have a hard time getting hardware out of the market,” he added. “Hardware is hard and if you don’t get it right, it can be very expensive.”

Secretary, grocery tv

Secretarial team. Image credits: Sales agent

Where he believes Clerk is doing the right thing is thanks to a “First rule approach,” allows the company to come up with a cheaper cost structure. The rise of social media has also made it easier to promote in-store retail as more people are used to absorbing a lot of content.

However, there is still a delicate balance between opening the screen and interfering with the customer experience. Nickell added: “You have to think twice because things are going to be hard to take off if it happens, and grocers don’t want to mess with what they already have.

Meanwhile, in addition to store and theater growth, Clerk has also tripled revenue over the past two years and turned a profit last year. With the business performing well, the company decided to invest in growth, raising $30 million in a Series B funding round led by Sageview Capital.

As part of the investment, Sageview partner Dean Nelson will join Clerk’s board, while Sageview principal Roberto Avila will join as a board observer.

While Series A is expanding the market and team, Series B is a pure growth round. Clerk has 30 employees and will grow the team, partnerships, and number of stores over the next two to three years. In addition, the grant will be for technology and product development, including new commodity analysis.

“When we had an opportunity to grow, we wanted to take it,” says Nickell. “We are going to use this round to get us into the market. What’s special about this space is that grocers want to know you’ll stick around, so to be a successful tech company in this space you have to build a lasting company and a the company will be the technology partner for the Future.”



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