Dec 1, 20173 min read
Leveraging digital and satisfying consumers' hunger for more.

By: Carol Abel, Vice President of Education, Food Marketing Institute
Tecnology in the Grocery Aisles

Even if you don’t know every single definition of the term “disruption,” you and your company are experiencing it right now. Changes in food retail are being driven by elements as significant as digital innovation and declining customer loyalty and as seemingly insignificant as meal kits and demands for expanded product labeling.

The lineup of sessions at the upcoming 2018 FMI Midwinter Executive Conference is organized to provide answers to questions you have about how to meet challenges and take advantage of the opportunities of a fast-changing industry. We have assembled a great group of thought leaders and experts who have their fingers on the pulse of the food retail industry for dynamic education sessions in Miami. You’ll be able to evaluate the disruptive changes throughout retail and ecommerce and see that now is the time to innovate, collaborate and partner in new ways.

We look forward to gathering the FMI family together to look at the ideas, consumer research, information, analysis and insight tailored specifically for the change at hand. Here are some of the topics Midwinter will cover:

  • Facebook, Google and Food-X discuss changing models bringing new levels of convenience, from direct-to-consumer models to front door convenience. Changes in consumer desires are coming fast, from education rates and urbanization, to increased health consciousness and consumer technologies, consumers are more empowered than ever. What are the food retailer’s best bets?
  • Whatever happened to customer loyalty? FMI and its partners have drawn together the work from several research projects to help you deal with declining loyalty in a world made up of digitally engaged shoppers.
  • The results of research by Ernst & Young will describe the consumer of 2030 and how you may have to change your business models to remain relevant and provide value to that future customer.
  • Industry analysts from NPD will summarize a mountain of historical food consumption data to help you forecast the impact that generational change is having on food trends.
  • A partnership of the Network of Executive Women and Accenture has prepared a session on how to win and retain superior talent in today’s workplace, particularly how to unlock the leadership power of women.
  • As we learn early predictions that 40 percent of current store grocery sales will move online by 2025 were conservative estimates, a panel of manufacturers and their retail partners will walk you through the steps they have taken with digital collaboration to recapture some of those lost sales.
  • Knowing that general merchandise and health and beauty care represent some of the greatest revenue opportunities available to grocers, Acosta Strategic Advisors will highlight the best practices of retailers who are taking advantage of those opportunities.
  • Sessions will also cover the top trends in fresh from the point of view of the consumer and the shakeup taking place in every part of the industry because of technology innovations.
On Monday, January 29, 2018, FMI President and CEO Leslie G. Sarasin will bring the Midwinter Executive Conference to a close with a State of the Food Retail Industry session in which she weaves together all the strands of research at her disposal and helps us understand where we are as an industry and where we are headed. Learn more about the program at FMI.org/Midwinter.