Top 7 insights from Capgemini’s ‘Grocery Trends 2025’ report
To the backdrop of this report, Sharon Yourell Lawlor provides valuable insights from both the shopper and retailer perspectives
Print30 April 2025
In this week’s What’s In Store, Sharon Yourell Lawlor, retail and shopper expert and one of RTIH’s Top 100 Retail Tech Influencers, reflects on a recent report by Capgemini on the grocery technology trends transforming the store
To the backdrop of this report, Yourell Lawlor provides valuable insights from both the shopper and retailer perspectives, exploring how technology is shaping the future of grocery retail and enhancing both customer experience and operational efficiency.
As highlighted recently in Capgemini’s Grocery Trends 2025′ report, in-store engagement has been on the decline, with only 60% of consumers reporting significant interaction with physical stores—down from 66% in November 2023.
This underscores a critical need for retailers to rethink their in-store experience to better align with modern consumer expectations and industry trends.
The good news is that there’s more technology available now than ever before to help retailers enhance the customer experience, lower operational costs, and improve margins. Retailers need not accept declining engagement as an inevitable consequence. Instead, embracing innovation through digital solutions can unlock significant advantages.
As outlined in the Capgemini ‘Grocery Trends 2025’ report, these technological advancements are not just a nice-to-have—they are essential for grocers and mass merchants looking to stay competitive in the years ahead. The report highlights the ways in which technology can transform the retail experience, improve operational efficiency, and increase profitability. Let’s explore how these insights can be harnessed to benefit both retailers and shoppers, ensuring that physical stores remain an engaging and efficient destination in 2025 and beyond.
1. Improving gross profit margins through innovative tech solutions
For the Shopper: Imagine walking into a store where prices are adjusted in real-time based on demand, sales, and promotions. Dynamic pricing and electronic shelf labels (ESLs) ensure you are always getting the best possible price—whether you’re shopping for a sale or checking for fresh items. Additionally, technologies like AI-powered demand planning ensure that the products you want are available when you need them, reducing out-of-stock frustrations.
For the Retailer: AI-powered demand planning and smart inventory management help grocers predict demand more accurately, minimising overstocking and stockouts, and optimising stock levels. With ESLs and connected POS systems, retailers can adjust pricing dynamically, improving margins and reducing the costs associated with manual price updates. This also streamlines staff tasks, allowing them to focus on customer engagement and other high-value tasks.
2. Food safety and traceability with digital solutions
For the Shopper: Shoppers today expect transparency in where their food comes from. Digital traceability tools, powered by blockchain, can offer you accurate and real-time information about your product’s origin, ensuring that the food you buy has been handled and stored according to the highest standards of safety.
For the Retailer: Grocers and mass merchants can meet increasingly stringent food safety regulations through digital traceability systems that automate inventory tracking and ensure compliance with food safety rules. This reduces the reliance on manual processes, saving time and reducing errors, while building trust with consumers by providing transparent product histories.
3. Addressing rising labour costs with digital augmentation
For the Shopper: Imagine entering a store where stock replenishment is seamless, and aisles are always well-stocked with the products you want. With automation and robotics, grocers can ensure that shelves are stocked efficiently, and staff is more readily available to assist you instead of being tied up with repetitive tasks.
For the Retailer: With autonomous systems like Simbe ‘s Tally for shelf inventory management, staff time spent on stock counting is greatly reduced. This allows them to focus on more valuable tasks, such as customer service. For retailers, this not only boosts productivity but also helps reduce labour costs, making stores more efficient while enhancing the customer experience.
4. Eliminating friction with innovative checkout solutions
For the Shopper: The checkout process is often one of the most frustrating parts of the shopping experience. By integrating self-checkouts, interactive kiosks, way-finding apps, and contactless payment solutions like QR codes, retailers make shopping quicker and more convenient for you. Whether it’s skipping long queues or using your phone to check out, these technologies reduce friction and improve your overall experience. As I experienced with my daughter last week, who had great fun using Tesco’s self scanner as we walked around the store, her thoughts were that it gave her something to do in the supermarket. It was a bonus to then get to the till and not have to go through the unloading and reloading process. For future generations, the expectations around removing friction will only grow.
For the Retailer: For retailers, adopting these innovative checkout solutions helps improve store flow, reduces wait times, and enhances customer satisfaction. It also frees up staff to assist customers rather than focus on manual transactions, enabling them to provide higher-value services, such as personalised product recommendations and support.
5. Enhancing the in-store experience with digital customer touchpoints
For the Shopper: Modern shoppers expect more than just a transaction…they want an experience. Digital shopping assistants, personalised promotions, and interactive in-store guidance provide tailored shopping experiences that make you feel more connected to the products you are buying. Whether it’s receiving recommendations based on past purchases or navigating the store with ease, these digital touchpoints elevate your in-store journey.
For the Retailer: For retailers, digital customer touchpoints help drive engagement and foster loyalty. By leveraging data to offer personalised promotions and services, they can enhance the shopping experience, increase basket size, and build lasting relationships with customers. This also leads to higher repeat visits and greater customer lifetime value.
6. Reducing shrink and waste through advanced technology
For the Shopper: No one wants to buy a product only to find that it’s nearly past its best-before date. With AI-enabled monitoring systems and RFID technology, retailers can reduce the chances of purchasing expired or damaged goods. This means a better experience for you, as you can be confident that the products on the shelf are fresh and well-stocked.
For the Retailer: For retailers, advanced technology helps reduce shrink and waste by offering real-time visibility into inventory, monitoring product freshness, and ensuring that items are rotated properly. This not only reduces losses but also boosts operational efficiency and increases profitability by keeping shelves stocked with high-quality products.
7. Managing technology sprawl
For the Shopper: When a store uses too many disjointed systems, it can cause inefficiencies that impact your experience. For instance, an app that doesn’t connect with in-store systems can make finding products or checking out more difficult. By integrating their systems and technologies, retailers can ensure that you have a seamless shopping experience both online and in-store.
For the Retailer: Retailers can better manage technology sprawl by integrating next-gen in-store supply chain capabilities and automated systems, which ensures that all systems work together seamlessly. This reduces complexity, enhances operational efficiency, and provides customers with a smoother, more consistent experience.
To read the full What’s In Store, click here.
Read more: 4 ways a New York coffee shop takes retail to the next level
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